Two years ago, when I was working with Indian Media Book, I was assigned to cover advertisement campaigns and ad reviews. In fact, I use to write a weekly column ‘Ad Pick of the Week’ which was quite popular among creative agencies. Hence, I am still getting emails from creative agencies about their campaigns on a regular basis but it’s been so long since I found any campaign interesting.
Surprisingly, Saturday morning a mail caught my attention from the men’s lifestyle brand Turtle, informing about their new video campaign which they have especially rolled out on the occasion of Mother’s Day. Unexpectedly, it’s not only unique but also one of the best ads on Mother’s Day this year.
The Concept
A mother prepares herself for the challenge of motherhood without any complaints. This feeling is something that no one can fathom. Only a mother’s true love enables her to overcome these challenges while carrying her baby.
Thus, aimed at paying tribute to motherhood, the video showcases a man who readily took up the challenge of carrying an average weight of a baby in the stage of pregnancy around his belly for nine days but surrenders after a week, confessing his discomfort while carrying. Truly speaking, I was not expecting this kind of concept from a men’s lifestyle brand, but I am very impressed by its hard-hitting technique of expressing the value of motherhood.
Conceptualized by JWT India, this ad film by Abhishek Sinha narrates the story of a man who has taken up the challenge to experience the last phase of motherhood just for nine days. According to Turtle, the core idea behind creating this ad is to portray the journey a woman carrying her child for nine months.
The Challenge
To give a real idea of what a mother goes through in the last phase of her pregnancy, the man was given an artificial belly weighing an average baby’s weight to carry with him until he completes his challenge.
On the first day, with little obvious difficulties the man pulled off the challenge with ease, but things started getting tougher from Day 2. He is seen facing trouble while doing his daily chores and the most difficult phase was the last three days when he found it hard to breathe and even could not get any sleep. In fact, he could not sustain the weight on his body anymore and ultimately surrendered on Day 7 of the challenge. It was extremely difficult and physically challenging for him, and he not only realised but also understood the pain that a would-be mother undergoes.
The Last Word
This ad film reminds me of Fevikwik’s Wagah Border ad which created buzz back in 2015 with its unique approach. It was the time of World Cup when videos from ‘Mauka-Mauka’ campaign were ruling the small screen, but despite tough competition, this ad won the hearts of people from both the nations.
Likewise, we have been witnessing almost every brand coming up with a campaign that revolves around Mother’s Day, but this video has elements that can directly connect with the audience. I personally like this video and would recommend that men must watch this at least once because it’s very important to understand the fact that Mother’s Day is not just about posting beautiful selfies with our mothers on social media with relevant hashtags, but it’s more than that. If we don’t understand the burden of power and responsibilities of being a mother, then there is no point in doing such formalities.