MAK’s new TVC urges bikers to keep their engines young

When the brief for a new TVC for MAK 4T Plus lubricant came in to the Euro RSCG office two months ago, the team on the job decided to revisit a proposition the brand had used a few years years ago and then abandoned. “We felt that ‘Keeps your engine young’ is a very strong plank for a lubricant to take, and believed it was worth going back to,” said Nilesh Vaidya, executive creative director. The agency also chose to avoid highlighting any functional attribute of the product for this particular campaign. “We thought we should do something about the spirit of the youth, instead of how good your engine will be and how smoothly it will perform,” he explained. The jingle that runs through the commercial found favour with K Ravi, who was brand manager on MAK at Bharat Petroleum at that time, and has since moved on to becoming the Mumbai territory manager for lubricants. He said, “Instead of coming up with a vanilla ad, we wanted a song that would become an anthem.”

The film opens on a gang of young people cheering for Mahendra Singh Dhoni in a cricket match they’re watching on TV. The visuals that follow feature more youngsters and the bikes they ride: for instance, a group who’ve parked their bikes by Howrah Bridge and are singing along to the jingle, a man on a bike who kicks a football that some kids are playing with, some young environmental activists participating in a motorcycle rally, and a couple who pass the Indian flag to army men in a truck. The ad ends with Dhoni riding on to the ramp of a fashion show and the baseline “Rakhey bike ko jawan!”. 

Brand ambassador Dhoni was available for a day’s shoot at Film City, Mumbai, and for the other shots, the team zeroed in on a city they felt wasn’t often on the travel itinerary of adfolk: Kolkata. “We couldn’t remember a single movie besides ‘Yuva’ which has the city in it,” said Vaidya. Unseasonal rain on the first day of the two-day shoot was one of the big scares during the schedule. “We spent most of that night awake wondering whether we would have to pay a 50% cancellation charge,” recalled the executive creative director. 

The 20- and 30-second edits of the commercials are already on air during FIFA matches and 60- and 40-seconders will be released by the end of the week. The campaign will be supported by outdoor and print in select automobile magazines which will complement the idea in the TVC.

Copywriter: Ajeet Shukla
Creative Director: Joejee Manthanam
Executive creative director: Nilesh Vaidya
Client servicing: Tiraz Balaporia
Account planning: Saloni Singh
Production house: Sky Blue Productions
Director: Narayan Shi
Music director: Rajeev Bhalla
Executive Producer: Kaustav Niyogi

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