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  Who can forget the feeling of sitting in a non-air-conditioned cinema hall at the height of summer only to see the Old Spice film showing a macho white male surfing the cool blue seas, with music set to the tune of ‘O Fortuna’ from the Cantata Carmina Burana. ‘Old Spice, the mark of a man,’ we were told. It was probably the first time opera music was played before millions of Indians – Titan introduced Mozart to millions more later in the ’80s. The brand Old Spice generated great buzz in 2013 again with its ‘Smell Mantastic’ television commercial starring Milind Soman in a white towel.

  Suiting advertising too spoke to a more sophisticated audience. Brands like Elpar presented the mythical Indian Wild West, with its protagonist lassoing horses. Vilas Kalgutkar, who played the Elpar Man for many years, reinvented himself into a highly-respected photographer in the 2000s. Bombay Dyeing used Ardhendu Bose, grandnephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and created a series of James Bond-like films with elaborate car chases, helicopter crashes, stool pigeons, snakes, dangerous ladies and poison darts. If suitings can play the superhero card, why not an undergarment? Goutam Rakshit’s Advertising Avenues created the blockbuster advert for their client VIP undergarments brand Frenchie in 1990. The hero played by Dalip Tahil combatted opponents dressed only in his night gown and a VIP Frenchie. Frenchie, which was in reality a mini brief and economical to manufacture, became a huge money spinner. Echoes of Frenchie’s success can still be heard in the undergarment circles. If VIP Frenchie was sold as a symbol of sophistication, it is a pity the modern day men’s undergarment advertising is nothing but celebrity six-pack parades. The first undergarment to go full frontal was Maidenform bra. The campaign ‘I dreamed I … in my Maidenform bra’ ran in the US from 1949 for twenty long years, helping women live their dreams of being out in their underwear. The campaign even crowd-sourced ideas from the customers – ‘I dreamed I took the bull by the horns/went walking/stopped the traffic/went to blazes/rode in a gondola … in my Maidenform bra’. When the bra burning movement started, the campaign took a break only to come back as ‘The Maidenform woman. You never know where she’ll turn up’.

  When the Raymond account moved to the small agency Nexus Equity, the advertising world wondered what they would pull out of their hat. Raymond had a wonderful run with Frank Simoes and his brand of sophisticated advertising. The campaigns ‘Guide to the well-dressed man’, ‘Raymond – A new kind of an executive statement’ were campaigns I had grown up with. The Indian male was changing and this was captured in the Nexus Equity campaign: ‘Raymond. Suitings for the complete man’. The campaign from Nexus Equity, an agency founded by Rajiv Agarwal, Arun Kale, M Raghunath and Rajan Nair, became a defining moment in Indian advertising. It broke away from the cliché-ridden suitings advertising of smart young men with women draped over their arms, mansions, luxury sedans, horses and more.

  One of my favourite ads from the campaign has a young man taking a walk in the woods with a little boy. The music that accompanied the walk was the famous Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young track ‘Teach your children’. Yet another film featured a young man, ostensibly back from abroad, looking for his long-lost friend only to discover that he was now wheelchair-bound. The film ends with the two friends laughing and having fun on Mumbai’s Marine Drive.

  Interestingly, Levis had created a campaign for its 501 Jeans through FCB which included a man in a wheelchair. Carol Moog, who was the Professor of Psychology at University of Pennsylvania has opined ‘…advertising developed for Levi Strauss & Company’s 501 Jeans, included a man in a wheelchair in one of its genuinely engaging, musically excellent, shamelessly imitated, sales-soaring “501 Blues” commercial. In the spot, young people are dancing, jogging, playing double-dutch and here’s this guy happily popping a wheelie in his chair…’2.

  The brand Raymond at once occupied the emotional high ground of the new Indian male of the mid-’90s. The waves of liberalization were opening up new opportunities for the young men of India. They now had to find a balance to their life. Is it work or family or both? Is it money or fame or none? Is it friendship or the pursuit of material goals? The suiting brand managed to resonate with the new emerging ethos of upper-class Indian males.

  Two young men are having a good time; one of them is obviously married and his wife is out for the day. In their merrymaking, they manage to spill pickles and more on the most prized tablecloth. While the friend panics, the man of the house tells him to relax. Then he goes about washing the tablecloth with Ariel, a new detergent powder which can remove the toughest stains. And lo and behold, when the wife comes back after her heavy-duty shopping, the tablecloth is back in its place, spick and span. This ad, released in the late ’90s, was another milestone in the way men were presented in Indian advertising. While part of the ad was conventional in its depiction of tough stains, detergent action etc., it caught eyeballs because it showed the man, the head of the household, washing clothes. Around the same time, we started seeing ads which showed the man making coffee for his wife, serving soft drinks to his family, etc.

  STOCK PHOTO: Over the last few years, thanks to the availability of cheap stock photos, many brands have opted to pick photos from stock photo vendors. So a smiling kid, a smiling family, a running man, etc. are all available for ready use. But one has to be careful lest the competitor also ends up using the same image, which will definitely cause much embarrassment.

  A new Indian male archet ype was evolving around this time.

  In 2005, a modest-sized FMCG player from Kolkata called Emami launched Fair & Handsome, a fairness cream for men. The Berlin Wall of skincare between men and women fell with a big crash. Emami did not shirk from spending mega bucks in promoting their new baby. They used the star power of Shah Rukh Khan and heavy advertising to quickly ramp up the brand. Was it just a lucky break?

  Hindustan Unilever for years had known that men were using their multi-million dollar brand Fair & Lovely. This was true of many of their brands aimed at women. Men were using Ponds Dreamflower Talc and Lux soap as well. Past experiments of targeting men with cosmetic brands had died with a whimper. Calcutta Chemicals had a premium men’s soap brand Aramusk, which had a cult-like following, but the followers were few and far between. The challenge that confronted HUL was similar to the ones companies with large monolithic brands face. Will something that they do inadvertently destroy their own brand’s equity? A newcomer has no such fears.

  They have nothing to lose. Emami had latched on to a new trend, what I would call the ‘effeminization of the male gender’. Globally, change was afoot. Men were becoming more grooming and beauty conscious. Global cosmetic majors like Procter & Gamble, L’Oréal and Beiersdorf were discovering a new emerging market. Male grooming products were rapidly expanding beyond the narrow band of shaving creams and colognes.

  HUL was quick to counter Emami with their own men’s fairness cream under the Fair & Lovely franchise.

  Soon products from Nivea, Ponds, Garnier and others arrived, all of them targeting the Indian male who aspired to look fair, handsome, smart and more. The male grooming revolution also drove up the demand for deodorants, face wash, hair gels and a flood of new brands entered the market from all FMCG companies.

  Godrej seem to have got it right with their Godrej Expert hair colour sachets by targeting both males and females, using an ad campaign that made one a ‘Jawani janeman’ (Youthful beloved)3.

  It is not as if all products are presenting Indian men as effeminate creatures waiting to turn fair with a head of curly black hair. We do have soft drinks like Thums Up and Mountain Dew which still evoke the thrill of adventure and action stunts. There are also undergarment brands which are trying to get scrawny young men to look tough and muscular, often with the help of a Bollywood star.

  Other advertisments featuring men too have changed in the 2010s. Whirlpool refrigerators featured an ad showing a young man cooking with his wife. Act II popcorn showed a father making popcorn for his family.

  Does this me
an that the Indian man is finally getting off his couch and doing something useful around the house? And is he enjoying his new role?

  FCB Ulka’s account planning team conducts regular studies to understand the changing mood of Indian consumers. Using a technique called ‘Mind & Mood’, the agency teams spend extended time with consumers in their homes and places of work, chatting with them and probing them on their behaviour, habits and attitudes. The team publishes these reports as special Mood Studies in the Cogito Journal4. The ManMood Study done in 2014 points towards some very interesting revelations:

  The study highlights seven key learnings which attempt to present a character sketch of the evolving Indian man.

  1. Sandwiched Generation – lives responsibly but regrets it

  The thirty-five-plus age group sees itself as a sandwiched generation which has lived responsibly. They have lived their initial years according to the advice of their parents and now are taking care of them dutifully, though reluctantly.

  But in the bargain, they see themselves as cheated, since even as their parents have certainty of old-age care, they are uncertain if their own children will care for them. Their lives are dictated by the needs, desires and dreams of their children until they become adults, which, in turn, has left them with very little time to live for themselves.

  2. You are only as good as the money you make

  The Indian man increasingly defines himself by his possessions rather than by who he is. However, this materialistic definition of self-worth means that the goalpost of success is constantly shifting and seems ever elusive as both the list of items necessary to be seen as successful keeps increasing as does the associated costs.

  3. Value of ‘values’ is decreasing steadily

  Today, three out of four men express some level of dissatisfaction with their standard of living. In a way, for them, life has become a continuous climb to reach the ever-elusive temple of Mammon. Anything which stands in the way of making this journey easier needs to be dismantled. Hence, this generation places very little store by ‘values’ and tends to instead swear by ‘practicality’. The worrying aspect is that they feel the need to ensure that children are brought up on a healthy dose of such practicality since good values may make it difficult to succeed.

  4. Men share the responsibilities but women don’t share in the pressure

  The relationship between husband and wife has increasingly become a relationship of equals with both partners sharing and supporting the family. The more materialistic nature of modern Indian society is also being manifested among women and the pressure of providing for the wants of the family is being visibly felt by the man of the house.

  The husband today is also increasingly expected to contribute time towards the welfare of the household beyond just earning money – a fact he is aware of but resents because he feels that since he brings home the income, he should be freed of the other aspects of taking care of the household. But he is, slowly and surely, being forced to take a more active role in household affairs.

  5. The new convention of parenting – children as assets to children as liabilities

  Children continue to be seen as the most precious gift but increasingly parents know that this gift comes with an expiry date. There is an increasing awareness that their role in their child’s life, once he grows up and becomes independent, may be limited. Hence, they are also preparing themselves financially for an independent existence. They see their duty as being limited to providing the best possible start for their child through the right education but increasingly expect children to shoulder the burden of expensive post-graduation degrees.

  6. Money is valued for what it can do rather than for what it is

  The attitude to money perhaps is one of the biggest changes in the Indian consumer landscape. This generation does not value money as an asset, but rather as an enabler. Accordingly, the attitude to money is not of conservation but of optimal utilization to achieve desires. But money is also one of the biggest stressors for today’s consumers. As expenses and inflation mount, estimating the correct amount of money for a better tomorrow is becoming harder.

  7. Vanity, thy name is man

  The importance of grooming is being brought home to the Indian man emphatically by a variety of factors, especially Bollywood and television. There is a significant incidence of appearance anxiety among the youth and young consumers today, who easily ascribe success to proper grooming. The repertoire of grooming products used by men, thus, is increasing exponentially the lower you go down the age ladder. Interestingly, in the less economically affluent segments, it is often the man who introduces new cosmetic brands into the household, even as the woman of the house often continues to use traditional remedies.

  A more affluent situation has transformed the Indian man into a marketer’s dream consumer across many categories with an ever-increasing appetite for consumption opportunities. This behaviour makes his future and retirement-related life uncertain but he wilfully turns a blind eye to the future risk and concentrates on making the most of the present.

  Rama Bijapurkar, one of India’s most respected consumer and strategy consultants, observes that men are a confused lot in today’s India. She quotes a study by Satyam Viswanathan, to note that Indian masculinity is being pulled in three different directions, by the weight of traditional expectations, the pull of modern ways and the growing wave of emergent Indian feminism5.

  Subhas Chakravarty, veteran adman and market researcher, goes on to reiterate that the male grooming category in India was the single-handed creation of marketing pundits and advertising. There was no governmental support or societal pressure. I suspect this category is going to keep growing with newer and newer products and services being added to the male grooming repertoire.

  While the Indian man is changing ever so fast, he still has a long way to go compared to his global cohorts. For instance, it is reported that in over 45 per cent of the US households, the primary job of cooking is done by the man. The same is true of child care and housekeeping. The number of stay-at-home male partners too is increasing around the world.

  Indian advertising is today speaking a different language to the men of India. It is no longer wrestling and football. It also includes skincare and cooking.

  I am a Complan Girl! I am a Complan Boy!

  ALL COOKING OIL brand advertising in the late ’80s looked the same – kitchen, dining table, admiring mother-in-law.

  An agency had been briefed about the launch of a new sunflower oil. The name was decided – Sundrop. The company, ITC. The agency, FCB Ulka. The market was dominated by groundnut oil and sunflower was a relatively unknown species. Hindustan Lever had just launched Flora, its brand of sunflower oil. While Flora was positioned as a ‘light oil’, it was felt that Sundrop needed to be positioned at the belly of the market, literally. Given the characteristics of the sunflower oil, it was felt that the brand could carry the tag ‘Healthy oil’. So while Saffola, which was made from safflower oil, was positioned as a pricey ‘Healthy oil for the unhealthy’, Sunflower had to figure out an interesting space to occupy.

  How to break through the clutter and stand out? How to communicate the proposition ‘Healthy oil for the healthy’?

  The creative team working on the brand hit on the idea of using a child as a short-code to spell health for the healthy. And then they literally made the kid stand on his head.

  The cartwheeling Sundrop kid, dressed in a yellow track suit, went on to tug at the heartstrings of mothers to make Sundrop the largest selling cooking oil brand within a few years of its launch in 1989.

  A few years later, Dhara did an interesting take on kids and food. A little kid sits mournfully at a small town railway station. A friendly old man dressed in khakis, probably the postman, spies him and walks past him nonchalantly. The boy, who knows the old man, is unable to contain himself and calls out to him. When asked what he was up to, the boy replies, ‘Sab gussa karte hain. Mein ghar chod kar jaa ra
ha hoon’ (Everyone scolds me. I am running away from home). The old man smiles and says that before he runs away he should consider one thing – his mother was making jalebis and by running away he would miss out on the tasty treat. The little kid sheepishly looks at the man and says that then he may postpone the running away to another day. We see the kid sitting on the bicycle as they head home. The brand message flashes. The film directed by Namita Roy Ghosh and Subir Chatterjee of White Light films for Mudra Communications was rated as one of the best films of its decade. The trustworthy postman dressed in khakhi uniform riding a bicycle has been an integral part of urban and rural landscape in India; I wonder if this cultural icon will ever be replaced by the local pizza delivery man?

  The magic of the kid as kid worked for both these food brands.

  Indian advertising has been using kids in their narrative since the mid-’50s. Detergents used to show kids winning cups in competitions and running home in their spotless white school uniforms. Milk food drinks like Horlicks and Bournvita too used to show kids performing well, thanks to the goodness of these brands.

  Complan took it to another level in the early ’80s when it featured a boy and a girl in its ad. Played by kid models who would become future film stars, Shahid Kapoor and Ayesha Takia, the ad had them singing ‘I am a Complan girl, I am a Complan boy … and we love our Complan mummy’. In a sense, it was the first of its kind where the girl child was the centre of the story line. She plays basketball, she helps her mother. But the brand could not get typecast as a girl brand, so they did have a son in the story who adds,‘I am a Complan boy’. Experts say that along with Farex, which was positioned as a ‘weaning food’ for infants, Complan changed the way child nutrition was perceived and promoted in the country. Till Complan came on the scene and started speaking about child growth, Indian children were growing on their own and did not need any special additive. But Complan changed that narrative. If Ayesha Takia won hearts as the Complan girl, the all-time favorite little girl was probably the Rasna girl.