“Life can surprise you,” say new Aegon Religare TVCs

Insurance, in particular the advertising for life insurance, is usually considered as no laughing matter. However, in Ogilvy & Mather’s new commercials for Aegon Religare, there’s a bit of dark humour to be found.

The first commercial deals with three friends going home from a costume party, when one of them who’s driving, decides to answer the call of nature in the middle of the woods: the twist being he’s dressed as a deer and there’s a hunter on the prowl. In the second, a wasp gets to have the last laugh at a laughter club. The third ad is set in an office and follows an executive who thinks he knows everything, except for one tiny detail: the window in his office isn’t there anymore. The baseline for all three is “Life can surprise you”.

In a chat with Campaign India, Anup Chitnis, executive creative director at Ogilvy & Mather, said, “The idea was to tell viewers about the importance of getting life insurance, without being too serious about it.”

The balancing act was getting scripts in the lighter vein for the four-word brief “Uncertain life, certain solutions”. According to Pradeep Pandey, director of branding and communication at Aegon Religare, the brand makes itself to be a friendly guide, and, hence, the company didn’t want their communication to be either too morbid or too frivolous. He added, “The primary TG for the brand is male, 25-44 years, and SEC A and B, and hence we wanted scripts that showed everyday situations they would be in, without looking too staged.”

Besides TV, the brand and agency are also making plans for the digital medium.

Watch TVCs here

"Fancy"

"Laughter Club"

"Office"
 

Executive creative director: Anup Chitnis
Creative director: Anuraag Khandelwal
Associate creative director: Satish De’sa
Production house: Nirvana Films
Director: Prakash Varma