One of a kind - The Hindu Business Line
July 13, 2012
I guess the advantage of being an ITC is that you can really pull out all the stops if you want to advertise something. Class mate is a stationery brand from the lTC stable and what better time to advertise their products than the "back to school" period?
Their TVC created by Rediffusion is a 60-second tribute to the art of telling a story lovingly, without the usual tyrannies of budgets and time to constrain you. Great sets, a large cast of children and a nice script that plays on the tendency of all adults to make children aspire to model their lives on some icon, or even themselves. You see exceptionally talented young kids being stereotyped as the "next" Einstein, Michael Jackson, Obama, Bradman or Ali.
Each time the comparison is made one sees the child's face fall with disappointment. Then you hear a child's voice saying "instead of being the next somebody, can I please be the first me"?
And that, with a melange of great shots leads on to the essence of the communication, where you are encouraged to celebrate your own uniqueness with, the best in stationery, Classmate. As l said, this is a film that every creative person would have loved to make. It really looks like some- thing made with an open brief and a wider wallet. Nice.
