How Ads Became Less

A new bride from the 1950s travels to her husband’s home in a boat with a two-seater sofa that she brings as dowry. The sofa becomes a symbol of pride for the family. It is then passed down to the daughter of that home, when she gets married. And then further passed down to her son when he gets married. And then to his daughter when she falls in love and elopes with her lover. The sofa goes through many transformations, its upholstery changes from cloth to rexine to ikat, reflecting changing trends and tastes. It survives floods and disasters, proving that a piece of furniture, stuck together with Fevicol, is strong enough to witness generations of change. This 90-second commercial made in 2020 encapsulated changing India, over 60 years, making ‘Sofa’ one of the most iconic Indian ad films to be ever created. The film is now blowing up on social media with youngsters replicating everyday life through the ‘Sharmain ka Sofa’ song—the beating heart of this commercial. On reels, young girls are seen applying turmeric face packs to their fathers’ faces, with the song playing in the background; clearly taking the generational leap of the ad one step further. This was the power of a good ad film. Within 60-90 seconds, filmmakers could move us to tears, and have us in splits, and make us feel so alive and seen, that we believed it was truly our story. If it was in an ad, it had to be part of life. A good ad film would usually take a couple of crores to make, but it was well worth it—both for the brand and the viewer.

However, the explosion of digital and social media, seems to have sucked out the soul, and the money from ad films. A brand’s need to be relevant, in the world of 10-second attention spans, has turned most ads into idea-free-mouth pieces for a new product. “It’s become about how many, as opposed to how impactful. Everyone’s just asking what’s trending and what’s topical—not what the story is, or how it’ll have recall value for the brand. If earlier, brands would release three-four strong ad films in a year on TV, it’s now become three-four ad films in a month on 10 different mediums. The result—a watered down, un-impactful, crass version of what could have been a good ad film. Plus, the churn is so fast, you can’t execute it the way you want to, or think large, visually. For instance, to make a film set in the hills, I need to spend two days shooting in the hills, and three days prepping to shoot. But most clients don’t want to spend that kind of time and money investing in a good idea. They’d rather have us shoot 18-hour shifts in a day and deliver three films, instead of one,” says writer-director Rajesh Ramaswamy, the founder of Script Room, who has been making ads for over a decade.

Many agree that the transition from high-quality films to over-simplified promotional campaigns shot on phone cameras, began during the pandemic. The Indian advertising industry which saw budget cuts of 20-25 per cent during Covid, also witnessed new ways to put brands out there by spending one-fourth the amount they usually would. However, once business was back as usual for creators, the demand of brands had changed forever.

“Earlier we would shoot one-ad film over a span of two days, and it showed. Now brands want one ad-film plus six other deliverables in the name of ‘unskippables’ and ‘thumb stoppers’ all within 8-12 hours of a shooting shift. Of course, it’ll impact the quality. I would say the budgets have gone down by 20 rupees per 100 rupees, but the deliverables are so high, that one is forced to create more in less time,” says Shirsha Guha Thakurta, founder/director, Oink films, who has made 200 ad films over 20 years, and believes that over-consumption has killed the joy of making ads.  “Filmmaking is time consuming and expensive, and sadly brands don’t care about quality. Setting up a world, building characters, creating a crescendo of emotions have all taken a back seat. The shelf-life of a film today is not more than a day or even a few hours, and they want to create all the impact in that one day and they will do anything for it,” says Guha who confesses to now taking up work only with brands that understand the ethos of her storytelling.

A brand’s demand for TVCs (television commercials) plus digital films, plus reels, plus testimonials, plus print campaigns to be all delivered in the shortest span, has given rise to two things. A slew of younger, relatively less experienced production houses, who are ready to work for much lesser costs, and a feeling of ennui within the industry that was once known to be golden pay masters for artists. “Every other brand is trying to cut costs, and the job goes to anyone who is helping them save money, irrespective of their skill set. I pitch for six-seven ad films every year, and I have lost jobs for a budget margin of as less as *Rs75,000. I directed films for a popular travel app where the budgets dropped from *Rs46 lakh per film to *Rs20 lakh per film to *Rs25 lakh for three films. Eventually they started making in-house content and getting their own employees to act. That’s how frivolous it has become. We aren’t being creative, because currently we are fighting for survival.” says actor director Errol Marks who is among the relatively newer ad-filmmakers in the market.

For actors, directors, cinematographers, production designers and many other artists, ad films are a per-day medium of wages. However, actors who would carry brand campaigns on their shoulders for years together, are now losing faith in the medium. Even semi-popular, character-driven faces who would get offered *Rs1-1.5 lakh per day of shoot, are now being asked to work for as little as *Rs 25-30,000. “I used to do 15-20 ad campaigns in a year, and now it’s come down to three of four. For the kind of experience I bring in, I refuse to compromise on my budgets. But ad films seem to have lost the kind of monetary strength it would display, especially for actors. Ads were our primary income source, and it was a cushion that helped us choose the kind of work we wanted to. But that’s not the case anymore. I’ve kept myself relevant with long-format work, because ad films are not a dependable income source anymore,” says Vipul Gupta, the original face of Mountain Dew’s ‘Darr ke aagey jeet hai’ campaign and iconic brands like Siyarams, with more than 150 commercials to his credit.

A recent ad-film shoot for a medicine brand extended to more than 24-hours as the production house was expected to deliver six digital films in a stipulated budget. An extra day of shoot would have cost them extra money. The result was an overworked, underpaid, unhappy cast and crew, who felt exploited to the core. “I was on set at 1pm and I reached home at 7am, and when I was leaving the set, they were still shooting,” says an actor on conditions of anonymity. She called it her most gruelling shoot. While many mid-level producers have chosen to bite the bullet and provide maximum output in minimum time, others are letting go of work when budgets are paltry. “I have said no to many projects in the last few years, if the budgets are too low because I know that it will reflect on those working on the film. I refuse to compromise on a certain work ethic and if I’m not able to be a fair producer to my crew, I may as well not do it,” says producer Radhika Sawhney who has produced work for brands like MakeMyTrip, Flipkart, Britannia among others.

THE VETERANS OF Indian advertising, who helped create a brand language that became part of household conversations, clearly escaped this scramble. Brands invest in them, and there’s zero compromise on quality. Production houses like Piyush and Prasoon Pandey’s Corcoise Films, Ayappa’s Early Mann Film, Bob Chaturvedi’s Good Morning Films, Prakash Varma’s Nirvana Films are among the top players who are watching the transition, but not feeling the heat thanks to their repute and seniority. In fact, it’s often their work that has resuscitated the dwindling quality of Indian ads. For instance, in the last five years Ayappa has given us unforgettable films like the astute Cred campaign where legends like Bappi Lahiri are auditioning for the brand, or the Khali film for Ambuja Cement or the most recent Jindal Steel commercial which won the Silver Lion for Editing and a Bronze Lion for Direction at the 71st Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. Apparently, the Jindal two-minute ‘Steel of India’ ad took three months and *Rs8 crore to be made. Allegedly, the highest budget for an Indian ad film to date. “If you want to sell something you have to talk to people culturally. Cred was creating a culture of people not taking themselves too seriously. When the hutch puppy was introduced back in the 2000s, you wanted to be part of that brand. The Johnny Sins film (with Ranveer Singh for Bold Care) broke all advertising rules. You have to be fearless to be relevant and very few brands are able to and willing to do that. People are smarter and they don’t want to be told the same thing in the same way and it’s our job as creators to think out of the mundane and ordinary. The top 20 percent are saved from this market rubble, because they are working for the idea first and money later. When money becomes your sole motivator, you end up pick up anything and undercutting your contemporaries, and that’s what is happening right now,” says Ayappa.

It’s a war between survival instinct and creative consciousness, and many within the Indian advertising industry seem to be stuck between the two.  When Surf came up with Daag Acche Hain, we actually felt like dirt was a friend. That’s the power of a good idea and storytellers. But today mediocrity is killing a once well thriving industry. India is still ranked among the largest advertising markets in the world with ad revenues quadrupling in the last couple of years, money is being channelled well only by a few brands. “Advertising is a testimony to the times you are living in, and if the quality of films has dropped it reflects the time we are in. Brands want to make the most of every penny they invest, but it’s us as creators who need to value our work, find and voice and stick to it. You may be able to make a film with an i-Phone, but is it really serving your idea and your larger experience of the film? These are questions that need to be asked. Let us try to achieve that each time, and we will set it right for the coming generation,” says filmmaker Suresh Triveni who transitioned from ad films to feature films a few years ago, but continues to see advertising as his home ground.

Clearly the problems lie both within and outside the industry. Creators need to fight for their right to tell a good story. And audiences should also demand ads that are as memorable as a sofa being handed down generation to generation.

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