The Coronavirus pandemic has changed the ‘essential’ items we’d like while going out. The mask is now an important accessory, without which, we will not leave our house.
While wearing a mask correctly, an individual’s mouth, lips and nose are covered. Dabur’s latest ad for Meswak toothpaste focuses on this fact to urge viewers not to ignore dental hygiene because the mask conceals it from the surface world.
The ad was spotted as a YouTube pre-roll commercial and is nearly a whole minute long. Shot with ‘stop motion’ picture style visuals and an unusual voiceover, we will not help notice how this is often a clear departure from Dabur Meswak’s past messaging which focussed on natural caring and goodness for the person’s teeth and gums.
The latest campaign was conceptualized and created by McCann Worldgroup, and they mention that they saw traction shifting to digital during the lockdown, especially among people living in top 10 cities which is Meswak’s key to the audience.
“We wanted to urge the younger people curious about the brand too. The target was to urge people’s attention towards Meswak, as long as during these times — oral care was lower down the priority in people’s monthly grocery list. There would be less chance that individuals would re-evaluate their toothpaste during an epidemic,” says Ashish Chakravarthy, executive and head of creative, McCann Worldgroup.
He explains that in the lockdown people are exposed to all or any sorts of interesting content, it had been important that we do something which has relevance with times; rather than building a narrative which the standard category code down.
He mentions, “We realized that the practice of wearing masks is not going to get away anytime soon that’s when the thought of ‘masking your oral problems’ emerged. The thought of ‘masking your oral problems’ connects contemporary life with brand play in a relevant manner for people.” He adds that the platform chosen was digital because our key audience has been active on digital, and also, we wanted to focus on the younger audience to undertake Meswak.
Chakravarthy feels that this is often a time for brands to be agile, and the oral care category is not any exception. He noted that, “In times of social distancing and ‘mask on face’ we would have liked to vary the brand’s narrative when everything is first seen from some extent of view of interest & entertainment.”
The mask has become a quintessential ‘corona’ accessory, and one cannot deny its pervasiveness in advertising messages. In April, Ogilvy conceptualized and created a campaign that featured the highest cricketers from Team India, to encourage viewers to wear even home-made masks publicly.
