O&M produces 'Moochwali' for Fevicol’s 50th anniversary

Bindu Nair Maitra, 13 November, 2009

Mumbai

If you have been intrigued by posters of a certain 'Moochwali' staring down at you, on your way to work or in print ads in the newspaper in the last few days, its all thanks to the team at O&M, which has been busy putting together the teaser campaign for Fevicol, as a lead up to the brand’s new campaign on Friday evening, to mark 50 years of Fevicol’s existence. Billed as the 'world’s shortest feature film', the campaign was preceded by outdoor and print teaser ads in the form of a film poster with simply the title ‘Moochwali’ on it and the image of a young girl. A rider on the bottom left reads ‘India's official entry to Cannes.’

The commercial shows the life journey of a young girl, who is shown getting dressed up by her family for a skit in their courtyard. She is playing a male character, and is therefore, provided with the mandatory fake moustache to complete the look. From hereon, the girl is shown sporting the moustache, for the rest of her life. The inference, of course, is that the moustache was stuck on her face with the help of a little dab of Fevicol. So whether it is at her school, where her teacher is mildly shocked at her appearance, or at a distribution ceremony in her village, or even when she has grown older and poses in a studio for a picture with a cut-out male character (the photographer promptly interchanges the male cut-out with a female cut-out character, after seeing her moustache), she always sports the moustache. She is shown in various stages of her life; as a newly married bride, an eager mother, a middle aged woman, one nearing old age and the last, finally, on her death bed, all the while, sporting the moustache.  Towards the end, as she breathes her last, the camera pans to show a nearby cubicle where a baby has just been born, albeit with a moustache, as a gesture towards the concept of reincarnation. The ad ends with the tagline of '50 saal se champion.’ (a champion for 50 years)

Watch the ad here:

Speaking at the special screening of the campaign for members of the media and guests, Madhukar B Parekh, managing director, Pidilite Industries said, “The last 50 years have been a wonderful journey. To be honest, we didn’t have a clue about the brand aspect, when we started out, way back then. Piyush happened to us, and I would say 1988- 1999 was when the big leap happened. Till then the proposition had been of sticking things together, and then we evolved to saying it ‘builds bonds.’”

Both the national creative directors Abhijit Avasthi and Rajiv Rao, were present at the launch. Talking to Campaign India about the campaign, Avasthi explained, "When we embarked on creating communication which would co-incide with the brand’s fiftieth anniversary, it had be something that would translate the bigness of the occasion. This was something that captured the essence of what we tried to say. It’s got this little tragic- comic feel to it. The track is inspired from a Gujarati devotional song, which has been re-rendered and rewritten by us. The film was shot all over Mumbai over a period of three days." 

Talking about the casting of the young girl in the campaign, Prasoon Pandey, director, Corsoise Films said, “The critical thing was to be able to find a sustained look, as the girl had to maintain that same characteristic throughout the film. It had to naturally look like the same person, as she is growing up. In every age group, while it was not hard to find that one person who fit the character to a T, that person may not match the best find in the in the next age group. Casting was a critical part of the film, and we spent a lot of time on that aspect. We started casting for the main character almost a month earlier than we needed to.”

Recalling memories from the early days of his association with the brand, Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and creative director –South Asia, O&M, said, “The very first ad that I ever did for Pidilite was not even for Fevicol; the 'Dam laga ke haisha' campaign was originally created by me for Fevitite, which was another Pidilite brand. I created the radio ad for it and took it to Madhukar bhai, his father and the team. They thought it was a fantastic idea, and suggested that I make a film around the concept. When I presented the film, they loved it. That’s when Madhukar bhai’s father said to me, “Fevitite is too small a brand for a big idea like this. Take the money all over again and shoot it for Fevicol, and that was the beginning of everything. I could never imagine that the people who gave me the brand in the first place to work on, saying ‘this is a non-creative brand, give it to this guy,’ were convinced that these guys (Pidilite) didn’t do good advertising. I thanked them from the bottom of their heart that they gave it to me.”

The media agency behind the campaign was Mediaedge:cia.

Credit details
Client: Pidilite
Agency: O&M
National creative directors: Abhijit Avasthi, Rajiv Rao
Creative Team: Piyush Pandey, Abhijit Avasthi, Rajiv Rao, Amitabh Agnihotri, Sameer Sojwal, Suyash Khabya, Ganesh Nayak
Servicing Team: Vivek Varma,Pratik Mehta, Ramanathan Sridhar

Media: Mediaedge:cia
Director: Prasoon Pandey
Production House: Corcoise Films
Music Director: Dhruv Ghanekar
Exposure: TV, outdoor, print