Coca Cola takes earthy, small town route; gets Farhan and Deepika to open ‘small joys’

Coca-Cola India has released a new campaign continuing with its 'Open Happiness' theme for the Coca Cola brand. The first film of the new campaign themed 'Choti ho ya badi, har khushi mein Coca Cola' (Small or big, Coca Cola in every moment of joy) features Farhan Akhtar and Deepika Padukone. The film has been conceptualised by McCann Erickson.

 

The film is set in a small town. As Padukone and her friend miss their college bus on exam day, Padukone laments that now that she will fail her exam, she'll be forced to get married and peel peas all her life. A man at a nearby shop wakes up Akhtar, who is lying down on his cycle rickshaw, by placing a bottle of Coca Cola to his face. Akhtar asks him, “Kis khushi main?” (For what joy), and is told that bhabhiji (Padukone) has missed her bus. Akhtar takes a sip of the cola and his rickshaw, and asks Padukone and her friend to hop on. He hands over the bottle of Coca Cola to Padukone as they start the journey, to hold. Accompanied by a jingle that kicks in, the joy ride sees the rickshaw overtaking the bus before ending outside Padukone's college. As Padukone thanks Akhtar and hands back the bottle, he reassures her that he won’t let her peel peas. They share a laugh as she heads towards the college gate with her friend. The film ends with the voice over 'Choti ho ya badi, har khushi mein Coca Cola'.

 

Debabrata Mukherjee, VP - marketing and commercial, Coca-Cola India, said, "Coca-Cola is a brand that stands for optimism and happiness. With our new campaign, Choti ho ya badi, har khushi mein Coca-Cola, we have translated the brand's happy energy into a series of commercials which capture the essence of finding moments of joy in our day to day lives. The language is very colloquial; the situations are every day, so that every consumer in India can relate to it and feel happy about the celebratory situations. The message is very simple - celebrate your moments of happiness, small or big, with a bottle of Coca-Cola."

 

He added, "We are very happy to have both Farhan Akhtar and Deepika Padukone join the Coca-Cola family. Our communication for Coca-Cola this year focuses on reaching the masses and both Deepika and Farhan slipped into the roles of 'everyday people' with great ease. They are great role models and very inspirational for millions across the country"

 

Prasoon Joshi, CEO and CCO, McCann Worldgroup India, said, "The concept of happiness is universal, and the joy that one look or a smile from that special someone invokes is universal and not constrained by demographics. Similarly, Coca-Cola delivers the promise of happiness universally; whether you are in small town or a metropolitan city you can celebrate the little joys of life with a refreshing bottle of Coca-Cola. It's this thought that served as the inspiration for this campaign. We have Farhan Akhtar and Deepika Padukone, two young and highly successful actors that have captured the imagination of the whole country essaying characters that you and I could bump into on the streets of Chandigarh or Allahabad or any other city."

 

Besides the TVC, the campaign will be seen on OOH and digital media. Behind-the-label promotions, point of sale merchandise and on-ground initiatives will also be used to engage audiences.

 

Credits

 

Agency: McCann Erickson

Chairman and CCO: Prasoon Johi

NCD: Pradyumna Chauhan

Account management: Alok Lall, Sarthak Sharma and Onkar Chand

Account planning: Jitender Dabas and Vibha Gupta

Production house: Golden Gaddi

Director (film): Anurag Kashyap

Music: Mikey McCleary and Vishal Khurana