Creativity Cre(m)ated

More than often, I sleep on Saturday nights only to wake up on Sunday to my inability to sleep anymore. This Saturday night, the party was turning into a disaster when the DJ started playing "Velvet Snow". The very next moment I was staring into my phone screen lying right next to me and the same song continued. Oh, that was my ringtone!!  (But as a ringtone it’s not that bad...). It was my colleague... but... on a Sunday morning?? Having recently seen the movie INCEPTION, the first question that came to me was "Am I in a dream within a dream??". I answered anyhow and all I could hear in a hurried voice was "Dude watch the new NEROLAC ad on YouTube".

Our company (incidentally the world’s largest Paints and Coating Company Akzonobel) believes we should always keep a close watch on our Competitors. And for that spirit I left the super smooth company of my satin bed sheet to switch on my work machine.

With SRK, the 3-in-1(Aan, Baan and Shaan) of Bollywood, I was sure Saif would get a run for his money. The video was taking its time to load (the best of days gets us 10kbps download speed), so I turned the volume to max, played a lovely Lata/ Kishore duette and relaxed on the recliner.

The song ended and so did my short nap. The video was ready to be played.

I adjusted the screen to avoid the glossy glare on the laptop screen and we cut to an Indian street with SRK himself sitting on a bench with a number of sub-ten kids perching on it. Some jumps and stunts of the DDLJ league from Mr. Khan with the sweet Nerolac tune in background and my jaws drop down in disbelief over the unbelievably close replication of our own Dulux Lets Colour campaign. I had to see our campaign in an adjacent window!

The shoot, the setting, the tempo, the lighting, the speed, the camera angles, and every chromosome of it was an amazing piece of reproduction.  And the best was still on the plate… The ad ended with the words “Chalo Paint Karein”. Lets Colour might translate into something else in Hindi J

Not yet over!! SRK once said…. “Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost”. Both the videos ended and I paused on the last still. Two identical cities painted in colorful hues. Little did they probably know that Dulux had actually painted all the cities showed in the commercial.

We believe in “Adding Colour to People’s Lives”. I’m sure that’s the next… “Bharein aapki zindagi mein Rang”… Way to Go!!!

I kept staring at the name NEROLAC…. The letters started floating in the air and settled back on screen… Just a bit jumbled… A CLONER…



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV4IoCgi2QA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb7CnBUj7GU