There are some things you cannot put a price on and a home cooked meal is one of them. Fortune Oil’s latest TV commercial titled ‘Ghar Ka Khana, Ghar Ka Khana Hota Hain’ featuring Akshay Kumar, shows that nothing can beat home cooked food. Especially for our jawans (Indian soliders), who stay away from home, for long periods and yet the mention of home cooked ‘poori chole’ puts a smile on their faces. The ad highlights a simple idea – the magic of home food and how one misses it when away from home. Given how many of us, at some point or the other, have left our homes for studies or work, the messaging around the film is highly relatable.
Three years back in 2014, Ogilvy had executed a campaign for Fortune Oil, based on the same theme which played on a relationship between a determined grandmother and the love for her hospitalized grandson. Back then, the TVC made a good emotional connect because it associated Dadi’s daal with motherly love, care, memories and a lot of comfort. Each time Dadi was reprimanded by the nurse, my heart went out to her.
The new ad is also emotionally impactful. Given Akshay Kumar’s association with the Indian army and how his films, in the recent past, mainly boast of strong, patriotic subjects, a story involving Akshay and the jawans does not come across as a big surprise. The ad also manages to leverage Akshay Kumar’s cooking background and proceeds to show him cook for the jawans. And this is where I am not totally convinced. Akshay might have cooked delicious and ‘home-like’ food for the boys but the point is – it is not quite the ‘ghar ka khaana’ the brand is talking about. While Dadi, in the earlier ad, was bringing daal which she had prepared at home, for her grandson, it appears here that Akshay is cooking food for the army boys so that they do not miss home. They are two different things. So, unless the ad is trying to say that fortune oil can make any food taste like homemade food, I am not fully convinced that the food he cooked, reminded the boys of the meals prepared by their respective loved ones. I also wondered what was the need for Akshay Kumar to say out the brand name towards the end? Wasn’t the end slate self-explanatory? It appears like hard-selling, on the brand’s part and runs the risk of diluting all the emotions that the ad evoked in the beginning.
Nonetheless, there is still a sustained interest throughout the ad film. It breaks gender stereotypes and in the edible oil category, very few brands have managed to do that.
Client: Adani Wilmar Ltd.
Brand: Fortune Edible Oils
Agency: Ogilvy South
