Himalaya Neem Face Wash urges young women to try it first

After a gap of more than five years, Himalaya has released a new advertising campaign for it's Neem face wash brand.

This ad takes off from the previous commercial which shows a girl frustrated by her skin troubles. Created by Soho Square (formerly Meridian Communications), a young girl is shown in the TVC suffering from pimples on her face. She uses bizarre props like huge sunglasses, a funny hat and using a cloth on her face to mask her pimples. Nothing works and the pimple is finally revealed in front of her friends. That's when she gets advice from one of them; she is urged to use Himalaya Neem Face Wash. The film ends with the girl shown pimple-free.

Commenting on the TVC, Rajesh K, business head – consumer products division, The Himalaya Drug Company, said, "We wanted to take the current TVC further. It's been running for almost five years and we wanted to refresh it and make it younger. This TVC now represents the current trends. While the new TVC dramatises the different things a girl does to mask her skin problems, the emotions she experiences are very real. The ad highlights this problem in an amusing way and then introduces Himalaya’s Purifying Neem Face Wash as the ideal solution for skin troubles. The message is ‘Try Himalaya first’ because the product delivers on its promise.

Shenaz Bapooji, head, Soho Square, added, “The current ad was doing well in the market. The market numbers suggested that. But we thought we needed to refresh it. So we went to the market and spoke to people in Mumbai and Bengaluru and the research suggested that youngsters are still perturbed by pimples. So this TVC has been created to tell them to use Himalaya first instead of trying all the remedies, as it works. We used the same girl and the same problem from the earlier TVC but just gave it a fresh take. The big challenge with this TVC was that we were going against a campaign that was doing very well for us."

The TVC went on air on 6 February and is expected to be on air for a year. The campaign also consists of print, outdoor and retail legs. A digital campaign conceputalised by OgilvyOne will go live air.