Latest Vaseline ad does it for good!

The gloves are off yet again, and this time, it's Vaseline v/s Vaughan, a print ad with viral effect.

Neha Saraiya | Delhi | August 11, 2011

The morning newspaper of yesterday, bought a new form of bare-knuckle fight into light. The mudslinging started during the ongoing test series between England and India when the former captain of the England team, Michael Vaugan tweeted, 'Has Vaseline on the outside edge saved the day for Laxman?' This not only attracted the wrath of the Indian cricket community (including VVS Laxman) but also provoked the brand, Vaseline and the creative agency, BBH to reiterate.

Talking to BestMediaInfo.com, Partha Sinha, Managing Partner, BBH India says, “Michael's tweet created an opportunity for us. Generally brands do not want to reply as they think too much of corporate guidelines. But Vaseline as a product is a classic example of brand that is real and alive. Thus, it is a possible reaction for a brand that lives in a society and thus we responded back.”

The creative appeared in three phases. The first print ad showed a bat imprinted with a bold cross mark in red along with the image of Vaseline petroleum jelly placed towards the end. The body copy of the ad read- 'To know more turn to page ..'.

The second creative in line took a step further with a list of 30 reasons to apply Vaseline; Dry extremities, healing stitches, acne, shoe- bites form some of the causes to use it. The real blow was, that the ad addressed Vaughan as a direct hit with the text, 'Dear Mr. Vaughan in India, Vaseline is used for:' and a mention at the end to visit the facebook page of the brand.

And the final knock came with third and last print ad in row that clearly stated that Contrary to the Vaughan's tweet, Vaseline is not used on cricket bats. It also probed the audiences to support it, by adding the badge to their profile picture on facebook.

The basic concept behind the ad was to highlight the good things that the Petroleum jelly does to its users, barring dodging the so-called 'Hot Spots'. And the creative agency ensured to bring this de-facto to the notice of Vaughan.

The ad was released in major newspapers including Times of India, Hindustan Times and DNA.

The creative team along with the brand and the media agency, Mindshare worked closely to develop this idea, right from the conceivable stage to the execution.

Partha explains further, the rationale behind listing a convoy of reasons to the ad as he says, “This product has always been promoted for its multiplicity of purpose. Thus we thought of listing 30 odd uses of Vaseline in the ad. But by this, we are not restricting the uses to just 30. It could be more also!”

The ad within one day of its release has garnered over 5000 fans on its facebook page, scaling up to 287, 709 likes along with topping the Twitter trends.

In fact, some of the interesting tweets read, 'Dear Michael Vaughan, sorry for the earlier rant, pliss to give the Vaseline family pack to our bowlers. Dravid out. Jai.

'@VaughanCricket yea..he used vaseline..ur famous in the indian newspapers..weren't tat much even wen u played cricket!'

But the buck does not stop here. As post the ad broke out, Voughan re-tweeted with a pinch of salt, 'Love it.. Finally someone with a sense of humour'.

To which Partha replies back, “We re-tweeted his reaction. He also understood the humor in a right way. But surely it proves that the brand does behave real and is not isolated from the world it exists in.”

Neha@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com