I have lived the life of a paying guest in Mumbai as a rookie in advertising many moons ago. Living off junk food and craving for home food as a bachelor is something that I can empathize with. The new ad for Fortune Cooking Oil worked for me at that level. The realism of every day life and the sheer joy of food was brought alive well in this story.
The campaign, which has two other films, Railway Station and Family Meal, has got mixed reviews from the advertising fraternity. While I found the ads endearing and striking a chord somewhere, I am not too sure if they provide a strong reason-why to switch. The argument ‘so light and tasty that you will devour the food’ is relegated to the product window with lightness not being highlighted. What remains with you is the thought: ‘the joy of great food’. The social setting of family gathering and shared relationships comes out beautifully (great casting and acting – shot by Dungarpur Films). The afaqs article says, Fortune wanted to bring back the joy that health conscious food and fast paced life had taken away and has purposefully stayed away from reminding the consumer about how oil adds on the inches to the waist. But in a world worried about oily food, bulging waistlines and competing brands that raise the spectre of heart attack powerfully, will this work?
