Swiggy launched a series of television commercials and digital videos in the last quarter of 2021 - a refreshing retake of iconic Indian ads that highlight Instamart’s speed in delivery of groceries.
Conceptualized by Lowe Lintas, the ads evoke our nostalgia triggering an immediate connection and relatability with Swiggy Instamart.
Remember the iconic Liril ad?
Swiggy and Lowe Lintas gave it a fresh and humorous twist where Gaelyn Mendonca emulates the Liril girl, Karen Lunel from the iconic 1985 ad, only to have her soap slip from her hands and disappear into the gushing stream.
What happens next?
Tada! A Swiggy delivery person appears in no time with a new bar of soap!
You definitely haven’t forgotten 5-star’s Ramesh-Suresh ads, have you?
When Swiggy and Lowe Lintas reimagined it, the Ramesh-Suresh duo who could only find chocolate wrappers in their pockets is instantly helped by a Swiggy Instamart delivery person with two brand new 5-stars.
And the Colgate Salt ad with the iconic line!
“Kya aapke toothpaste me namak hai?” is a question we have all used in our lives at least once. So captivating was this ad that featured many celebrities including Lara Dutta.
Talk about giving it a cool twist!
And the Brooke Bond ad featuring Ustad Zakir Hussain with the famous line, “Waah Taj”
And when Swiggy rehashed the ad for Instamart, it looked something like this.
Interestingly, Swiggy isn’t the first brand in recent times to go down the nostalgia-inducing path as a strategy.
Remember the iconic Cadbury ad that was given a gender twist by Ogilvy!
That music with the refreshing new take was much appreciated by the audience.
Side-note: This Cadbury ad also featured on our list of best ads of 2021 list.
However, the big question is: is spoofing/parodies a good strategy?
We got some mixed responses to this question.
Some said spoofing iconic ads meant you are capitalizing on a dormant opportunity - banking on the success of a famous idea to give your brand a good jump start. It is a fun strategy, they concluded.
While rehashing old ads has emerged as a popular approach for many brands, some still believe that this could be a shortcut to building brand recall that can work in the short term but fail to leave a lasting impression.
So depending on your objective behind recreating the ads, it might or may not work is what we finally concluded.