VICKS - India

This is an ad for Vicks for their campaign #Touchofcare in India. This ad has gone viral on social media and is a piece of art in the sense that it is very rare that a brand in India takes up a social awareness cause as its primary marketing tool - let alone a cause centered around LGBTQ issues. Let's remember that same sex marriages are still not legal in India and transgenders have been extremely stigmatized and marginalized.

The ad centers around a true story about how a transgender woman adopts an orphan in India and against all odds, manages to raise her as a single parent. The ad is beautifully done, in the sense that you go through the Hero's journey and can truly feel the emotion, though the hero is not revealed until near the end of the ad.

This is necessary not only to feel the emotion behind the story but also to strike a chord among people who do hold stigma against transgenders in their hearts - because who cannot feel that they are on the wrong after watching this - love is universal and we are all people, we all die, we all have the same color of blood. We are really not that different in essence. Everyone is capable of good. 

The primary audience of this ad are the mass audience that you can tap on TV - this makes sense as Vicks is more of a necessity product that most households in India always keep in their medical kits at home. Although, the makers of this ad definitely took a bold step in bringing out this issue to the masses while knowing that there is mass social stigma against these groups of people. What adds to the emotion and makes it more real is the fact that the actors are the real characters behind the story. 

The risk seems to have paid of brilliantly as the ad has close to six million views - just on Youtube - it has been released less than a week ago! This does not include the views garnered on broadcast television, which is possibly much higher. 

Unfortunately I could not find the agency that is responsible for this ad - which I shall be updated once I find out, hopefully!