Idea’s telephone exchange connects mother and son

After the husband-wife story, Idea has launched another film on its ‘telephone exchange’ theme. This time, the focus is on a mother-son relationship, with the father swapping phones to help them understand each other.

The film opens with a mother complaining to her son, who works in Mumbai, that he doesn’t call home often enough. The son has a valid reason - being swamped by work. Listening to the argument between mother and son, the father decides to exchange their phones without their knowledge to help them see how a day in each other’s life plays out. Later when son finds out that his phone has been exchanged with his mother’s, and she hardly gets any calls, he regrets and guarantees to call her daily. Likewise, the mother realises how busy her son is, by the number of calls he receives.

On the TVC, Sashi Shankar, CMO, Idea, said, "Idea has always provided simple telephony solutions to large social problems. This time the brand addresses not so much a societal issue but an endearingly 'closer to my life' story that has the potential of impacting a very large part of the society. The husband and wife story has been well received. We hope our second story, based on the relationship of mother and son, also builds the same level of emotional connect with our audience."

Ashwin Varkey, executive creative director, Lowe Lintas, added, “We chose the story of a mother and a son this time as it’s an extremely relevant issue. It also allowed us to tell the story in a refreshing way. Unlike the last Idea ‘telephone exchange’ commercial, where each one attends the calls and realises what the other one goes through, in this story, there’s a small twist. The understanding comes about between the two as the son’s phone, which is with the mother, rings off the hook giving her an idea of how busy her son is. However, the mother’s phone, which the son is carrying, doesn’t ring at all through the day making him realise how his mum doesn’t have too many people to talk to. After which, he promises his mum that he would call her more often."

Credits
Client: Aditya Birla Group
Brand: Idea
Creative agency: Lowe Lintas and Partners
Creative: Arun Iyer, Ashwin Varkey, Sarfaraz Siddiqui, Subodh Menon
Account management: Raj Gupta, Satish Ramanathan, Sachin Pandirkar, Shrenika Ajeet, Tanvi Pawaskar
Planning: Subramanyeswar S
Production house: Chrome Pictures
Director: Amit Sharma