If you're old enough, you will remember the Cadbury Dairy Milk ad about the batsman hitting a vital six and the ecstatic girl dancing out onto the ground avoiding the cop. Now that old ad has been reincarnated in a fresh retelling – with a gender swap. Check it out.
This is arguably one of the most iconic and beloved of Indian TV ads. It is something that will make Indians growing up in the 80s and 90s quite moist-eyed with nostalgia.
The old Cadbury ad itself was inspired by an actual incident. It was January 1960 and Abbas Ali Baig had just scored a 50 to rescue India from a defeat at the hands of Australia. A young woman jumped the fence and ran out to the batsman returning to the pavilion and kissed him. In the India of the day, it was a minor scandal, but decades later, it became the inspiration for the original Cadbury Dairy Milk ad.
They have recreated the old ad quite faithfully – the type of shot, the way some organizer-type slaps their forehead, the anxious one in the stands are just the same. So is the way the shot goes just over the boundary and the way the spectator avoids the cop and comes dancing onto the field.
The only difference is the gender swap. This time it’s the girl playing the lofted shot and her boyfriend who is anxiously watching and then seen delightedly dancing on to the field to meet her.
For some, the fact that neither the batsman then nor the batswoman now is seen wearing a helmet when facing a fast bowler is a matter of concern. But then a helmet would have come in the way of a proper hug, right? And how else would we have seen her ponytail swinging as she swings her bat!
But nostalgia!
Apart from the nostalgic element of the ad, the new ad is great even as a standalone. If an ad makes one feel good and propels a person to buy a product, it has literally accomplished all that it set out to do.
Cadbury is one of the most enduring brands in India – this is clever branding apart from everything else.
All around us now, we are shedding restrictive gender roles and embracing the idea that while one’s sex can be biological, gender is a social construct. The ad reflects this. We are shaking off the conditioning that made us think of some jobs and being for men and some for women; which saw women in loving but supporting roles when their men went out that did big things. The new Cadbury ad reflects the perceptual shift that women can also go out and do big things while the men in their life offer loving support.
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