SALES AND PROMOTION TERM PAPER REVIEW

TOPIC

Analyse the message strategy in the MENTOS Ad.

SUBMITTED TO: - SUBMITTED BY:-

MR. ABHISHEK DUTTA NIPUN BHARDWAJ

RT1903B38

10906203

'Dimag ki batti jala de' - Mentos' TV Commercial

(I) The concept of the Advertisement –

Famous poet and writer Martin Dansky once said, "Change is at the very core of evolution and without it, all creatures would look alike and behave the same way."

Mentos mint's new TV commercial is here to prove the same.

Characters –

(A) The Chimp (Slave)(B) The Donkey (Master)

………. This is just the beginning, the story folds into a new arena as -

Mr. Chimp has no brains. He gets bullied by Mr. Donkey, the authorized owner of all the brains on earth. While Mr. Donkey, "Daddu" of the huge but cute ape, enjoys his ride on the wheel-less cart, our pitied forefather slaves to pull the heavily loaded wood piece through the stony rugged jungle road.

When Mr. Donkey is absolutely tired of enjoying the joy ride he decides to take some rest. Both the slave and the master park themselves under a tree where Daddu's poor pitiful grandson finds a little pack. It has "Mentos" written on it. Mr. Chimp offers the little pack to his master but the ruthless master rejects it and goes off to sleep.

Mr. Chimp is tempted. He opens the pack, stares at the white thing inside, smells it and finally allows his mouth to engulf it.

Within seconds, transformation is witnessed. He starts running, not on four, but two! While running, he decides to get civilized, and hence covers his hush-hush zones to maintain some confidentiality.

He enters a cave. It's dark inside. The chimp-turned-caveman lights some fire striking two stones against one another. But he does not stop; he keeps running as though he were running in the Olympics! And finally when he reaches the cave-end "there is light" and he, the "enlightened."

Now, as he leaves the darkness behind allowing the light of wisdom to fall upon him, he encounters Daddu once again. That being is still under the same tree. While Mr. Chimp had transformed into a civilized mortal being, the "intelligent" could witness no such change.

Reason? It's Mentos, ladies and gentlemen!!! The brain stimulator... rejected by the grass-eater and devoured by brain-meter. Dimag ki batti jala de!

But what's on the penalty plate for Mr. Ass?

Well, now it's his turn to pull the new-born Mr. Intelligent, happily riding his stony cart while it rolls on his freshly invented round wheel. Sorry Daddu.

Characters –

(A) The Chimp (Master)(B) The Donkey (Slave)

…………… and the story ends here

Mentos' TV commercial is faithful to its tagline -

Dimag ki batti jala de!

(II) The Facts –

Ad Agency: Ogilvy & Mather Production house: Soda Films

Creative Director : Jignesh Maniar

Film Shoot : Frameworks (Singapore)

Characterization : Rajesh Krishnan

Running time: 51 seconds

ITV rating: * * * *

(III) Advertisement Objectives –

The AIDAS model can be used to determine the advertisement objectives –

Awareness – This ad of Mentos was a big hit among the general mass of people. One can either love it or hate it but when it comes to ignoring I, the answer is a big NO.

Interest – Most ads in this category generally talked about fresh breath but the Mentos ad deviated from the other ads in this category. Mentos doesn’t talk about the functional benefit at all

– it works on a psychological level, where people associate the brand with the imagery of ‘smartness’.

Desire –The ad was successfully able to gain conviction. Mentos maybe a breath freshener, but the message the brand image conveys is ‘think fresh’.

Action –After such an innovative advertisement, the company Perfetti Van Melle found a huge surge in purchase behaviour of the mint flavoured candy. The ad has helped the brand to increase its market share in the soft mint category from 33% in 2005 to 48% in 2007.

Satisfaction – In overall the ad proved to be successful as most of new purchaser of Mentos, prompted by the ad to purchase it, were satisfied with the product.

(IV) Types of Media utilized for Ad –

(i) Print Media – Newspapers Magazines

(ii) Broadcast Media – Radio Television

(iii) Electronic Media – Internet Web portal

(V) The Target Audience – Perfetti Van Melle needed an

aggressive strategy to build a brand name that the country’s youth could easily identify it with. The fact that they chose the age group of 18 to 34 years clearly

proves the point that the company targeted college going crowd and the youths just who stepped into adulthood.

(VI) The Message – The company wanted to depict the real life situations built around the theme of ‘smart thinking’. Through animated advertisement the company spreads that they embarked upon a

(VII) Message Design –

(a) Message Content - The theme is that it described very little about the

product itself but simulated situations in which the Mentos consumer was shown to be having greater presence of mind and that was indirectly attributed to consuming Mentos mints. The appeal is a Rational Appeal i.e. go for a product that enlightens yourself or “ dimag ki batti jala de ”

(b) Message Structure – The advertisement starts showing the

evolution of humankind from monkey to man based on the Darwin theory of Evolution. The ad continues with Mentos enlightening consumers with its ‘Dimaag ki Batti Jala De’ tagline. At the end the tables have turned and the man rules the donkey !!

(c) Message Format –The ad is 51 seconds long and was first

introduced on television. The ad is very well crafted animated ad and has moved away from the real life to artificial world (absurdism) without losing the original positioning.

(d) Message Source – The brand moved away from usual ideas and

took the animated path. The appeal was made to the public to use Mentos so as to enlighten themselves.

Thus this concludes the advertisement analysis of Mentos “ Dimag ki batti jale de ” ad.