Asahi India thinks its new ad will do to it what the Amir Khan campaign did to Coca-Cola. The company has just canned a television commercial for its new brand, Stronglas, featuring Rawalpindi Express Shoaib Akhtar and nonagenarian theatre personality Zohra Sehgal.
Scripted by O&M's sister agency RMG David and shot by Sunhil Sippy of the Mumbai-based Highlight Films, the 45-second ad starts with an old, fragile and cynical Zohra Sehgal provoking Shoaib Akhtar to bowl at her.
Initially, Akhtar refuses to take up the challenge but he can't stand her barbs. He seeks forgiveness from the almighty and runs in at full speed to bowl at the old woman wielding the bat like sword in the middle of Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. Eventually, the ball collides with the seemingly invisible glass wall and comes to a halt without damaging the glass.
"The idea of the campaign was to show how strong the new brand of glass is. Akhtar actually ran in and bowled his quickest. There are no special effects in the ad," said Josy Paul, country head and national creative director of RMG David. The commercial will break on television screens early next year.
Glass manufacturer Asahi India has set up a new subsidiary called AIS Glass Solutions to create new glass products and services. Stronglas is the first such product from the company's stable and more will follow. Each product will have its own print campaign and TVCs.
For Stronglas, this is the first campaign which uses "shock and awe" to make people aware of the product. The next ad will communicate the use the product and will not feature Sehgal and Akhtar. The company has an advertising budget of Rs 12-14 crore (Rs 120-140 million).
As far as Shoaib Akhtar is concerned, it is his second showing in an Indian advertisement. Earlier, he had appeared in a commercial for TVS Victor, alongside Sachin Tendulkar and Brett Lee.
For the Asahi campaign, Akhtar was contracted through Showdiff, former cricketer Ravi Shastri's celebrity management firm. The company is not willing to divulge the money spent on getting Akhtar to endorse the glass campaign. He was paid a very reasonable price, executives claim.
Sources added that for theatre artiste Zohra Sehgal, it is her first television campaign.
For Asahi India, the new television campaign breaks fresh ground in the sense that it had earlier used model Katrina Kaif for its advertisements. Kaif had also featured on the cover of the company's last annual report.