Pepsi needs to move on!

We all have had our share of ‘kis ne kaha tha pepsi pe panch rupee kam kar do’. This campaign was launched during last year’s Ramzan. For me personally the TVC wasn’t that great an idea. However, the sms frenzy that followed I believe worked out for the campaign. As the Urdu saying goes ‘Badnam hongay per nam tu hoga’.

This phrase sums up what all that sms frenzy did for the last year’s Ramzan campaign. Like all things Pakistani, we stretched the use of this electronic media to the point that it became unbearable. While discussing the campaign in one of my marketing lectures as an undergrad student, my professor suggested that there might be a genius behind the campaign, who intended that the TVC initiates all the sms and other social media hype.

That could surly be the case. However, after seeing the Ramzan TVC for this year I don’t think there is anyone slightly genius behind the campaign. ‘Kis ne kaha tha pepsi 65 ki kar do?’ My guess is that the person or team behind this campaign though that it will generate the same kind of response, but why didn’t anyone point out that this was going to be a remote possibility. Anyone with the slightest common sense could have seen through this.

People get bored quite easily and this stand especially true for ad campaigns. There was no aspect of the last year’s campaign which made the customers nostalgic and surly this year’s campaign just showed that the people behind it had run out of ideas.

Surf Excel - Tools for School (Corporate Social Responsibility)

Kids are a big consumer segment and marketers are known for targeting them from a very early age. There is even a counter movement against this as this is considered as crossing the ethical lines. The documentary ‘Consuming Kids’ presents the case on this topic in great detail. However, in my opinion it is the way someone uses a medium that determines the ethical aspect of it.

With time the consumer is gaining more awareness and is demanding sustainable solutions for their needs. The rise in the corporate social responsibility units of most of the companies shows how the system can be used for a positive purpose.

One such example is the recent campaign of the Surf Excel, Tools for School. It is promoting the rebuilding of the schools in the flood areas. The TVCs are well executed and most of all, the concept is a really good one. There is a point of view that will state that no company is out there on a philanthropic mission. True that, after all the base line behind every business is to make sure that the ROIs are progressing as intended. But should that be the point of focus as long as the deserving get their due share and contribution towards a sustainable system is being made?