Shorter version on audio:
YouTube:
Spotify:
Full post:
Havells kickstarted the ‘Hawa Badlegi’ series of ads way back in 2013. Lowe Lintas had initiated the series with four ads that used the ‘hawa badlegi’ phrase as a pun that addresses the industry segment Havells is in (fans, besides other white goods) and social consciousness.
The idea was smart – to put the product in the background where the main plot is about a vocal and visible change in social norms.
So the initial ads depicted everyday events where there’s a marked change in social norms.
A house-help being asked to sit with the rest of the family to eat dinner…
A couple wanting to adopt a senior citizen from an old-age home…
A guy wanting to change his surname during a marriage registration…
A couple not wanting to state their newborn baby’s religion at the hospital…
What do Havells fans have to do with these situations? Nothing significant, except for the fact that they are shown towards the end, doing their job either as a ceiling fan or as a pedestal fan.
Flimsy brand connect? Perhaps, but I reckon this was the plan – to elevate the depiction of the fan from a mere feature-level to the context in which they are used as mere incidental items in the background… which they really are anyway. The fans do not power the social change, but I assume the brand wanted to be seen as more than a simple fan brand. The series provides gravitas to mere fan advertising (which Havells could still do in parallel) and puts a halo on top of the brand. It also gives people to talk about a fan advertisement that goes beyond mere features, something that is largely insignificant in our lives beyond a small purchase window.
Then, buoyed by the success of the 2013 campaign, Havells had a go at the same theme in 2014 too. The success of the previous year’s campaign was perhaps a bit too marked in the brand and the agency, because the 2014 ads all had a political backdrop! Also recall this period – April-May 2014 is the period when BJP came to power with a thumping majority.
So the three ads in 2014 addressed a political candidate saying no to a corporate donation…
A new Minister turning the fan’s direction to the seat opposite him, away from his chair…
A new bureaucrat informing his constituents that they hold the power, not him…
Perhaps the 2014 series was a success too, because the brand and the agency extended the same idea into 2015 too! But, for some reason, the framing was changed from ‘Hawa Badlegi’ (in Hindi), to ‘Winds of change’ (in English). It’s the same thing, only the articulation’s language changed.
So the 2015 series touched on even more controversial themes!
The first ad actually addresses inter-religious marriage and touches upon religious conversion… but not in a way you may think 🙂
The 2nd ad has a lovely premise connecting an orphanage and a wedding reception…
The 3rd ad is set in a censor board screening and addresses gender bias…
The 4th was meant as a regional ad (meaning South Indian languages, in advertising parlance) and addresses periods…
This ad was also the first to break free from the signature ghazal’ish tune that accompanied all the ‘Hawa Badlegi’ ads so far. The tune here was localized to something in South Indian languages.
That signature tune has never been used after this ad, this year!
It’s clear that both the brand and agency were experiencing considerable attention and success year after year—despite handling seemingly controversial themes—that the 2016 campaign’s first ad touched on yet another controversial topic – reservations!
The framing was again changed – from Winds of Change to Main Pankha Hoon. Here’s where the articulation seemed moving away from what was, till now, normal usage. ‘Hawa Badlegi’ and ‘Winds of Change’ are commonly used phrases, but people uttering ‘Main pankha hoon’ (Or, ‘I’m a fan’) without any meaningful context (for example, telling a celebrity) seemed downright odd and forced. It’s probable that the brand and the agency took their own concept way too seriously and entered into zones that didn’t add up based on common sense.
The first ad had 3 stories running back to back – a young girl insists—against her father’s action—that she doesn’t want to apply for a college course under a ‘quota’ and picks the ‘general’ category instead. The other 2 situations involved a VIP’ish lady choosing to drive her children herself (instead of the driver) and a student protest where books are being burnt.
It’s the first situation that evoked widespread condemnation and calls for withdrawal, possibly because the death of Rohith Vemula had made significant news just two months before this ad (in January 2016)!
Havells withdrew the ad and offered an apology too.
The very next month, Havells released another ad in the Main Pankha Hoon theme – this had 3 situations too addressing black money, political banners, and a visually-challenged newsreader. The core of Hawa Badlegi remained in these situations too, and they seemed less controversial than the previous, withdrawn ad. But the ‘Main pankha hoon’ framing seemed utterly bizarre when the visually-challenged newsreader responds with that phrase to ‘Who are you?’.
The true mark of success is not just when you are being spoken/written about, but also when you have imitators directly targeting you 🙂 If we use that logic, then Anchor Fans’ take on Hawa Badlegi in May 2016 should count as flattery by imitation!
In a clumsy move (agency: Brand Whiz), Anchor Fans chose to directly use the Hawa Badlegi premise, twist it into ‘Soch badlo, hawa toh badalti rehegi’ (after a character starts the ad with, ‘Yaar hawa kharaab chal rahi hai!’). This not only misses the obvious fact that Havells series was indeed about ‘soch badlo’ that was layered inside the larger ‘hawa badlegi’, but also makes the fan connect explicit by using it as a tool to move things around.
The situations it tackled too seemed to be exaggerated enough – from a lady throwing someone else’s garbage, to a young boy choosing a birthday in an orphanage instead of a party.
Possibly because of the backlash faced by the first ad, Havells seemed to be pausing the entire ‘Hawa badlegi’ premise in 2017. But at least one ad in 2017 had the same narrative – a girl comes to see the guy, in a reversal of gender roles.
The other had just a charming guy-girl banter and had no specific progressive premise!
But even though the ‘Hawa badlegi’ theme was not used, this series in 2017 made a big shift – they actually showcased specific fan features as an integral part of the narrative. So the 8-blade fan was showcased when the girl talks about her house in Jaipur getting a lot of air from the window. And the other ad featured a dust-resistant, arty fan!
And then, a long pause.
Havells did not use the ‘Hawa badlegi’ or ‘Winds of Change’ or even the ‘Main pankha hoon’ premise all through 2018-2021, until they restarted it in 2022.
The new campaign uses global warming as the premise to place the ‘Hawa badlegi’ theme all over again, after 5 years.
But unlike every single ad in this themed series since 2013, and more like the 2017 non-themed ads, Havells linked a product feature intricately to the theme – the fans being showcased promise ‘60% energy savings’ and that’s positioned towards global warming.
The first ad, situated in a politician’s (who, for some odd reason, talks like 3 Idiots’ Chatur ‘Silencer’ Ramalingam) home where has a conversation with his daughter, is conveniently placed in the space outside the home. So a fan’s presence makes contextual sense.
The 2nd ad, though, is a CEO at a press conference in what seems like a hotel or the company headquarters. The CEO is talking about windmills just outside the premises. And a journalist, profusely sweating, points out that they have cheap fans in that room that don’t save energy. What energy-saving has to do with a fan that doesn’t provide adequate air is not very clear, but to expect a press conference happening in a non-air-conditioned room is a severe stretch!
Now, if you look back at the many ads since 2013, a few other situations could be argued as areas with fans or areas with air-conditioners.
For example, the hospital ad (baby’s religion) from 2013 is more likely to have air conditioning than a fan.
Ditto for the new politician’s office (2014) where he turns the pedestal fan away from him – this place too is more likely to have an air-conditioner and not a fan that seems to have been inserted for the sake of narrative convenience.
The censor office too is more likely to be air-conditioned than have fans – wouldn’t they be watching the film in a closed, sound-proof screening room, and avoid fan noises?
As far as long-running ad themes in India go, Havells’ ‘Hawa Badlegi’ and its variants have really been at it for a very long time. But while it’s good to see the theme’s return in 2022, the context of the theme’s usage seems to have really stretched and is a far cry from how it was first utilized in the beginning.
The context was strongly tied to a progressive societal stand and the many small acts depicted made sense within the theme’s idea – that there was a change happening. Many of those acts were well-thought-out too.
But the 2022 campaign has started incorporating product features as an element and this is where the logic goes for a toss.
For instance, at the politician’s home, while he is talking about electric buses as a progressive act towards alleviating global warming, his daughter is seen visibly sweating. A fan that doesn’t promise energy savings can still be a functionally decent fan – only, it’d consume more energy. To equate energy saving with better performance is a stretch, while missing the basics of the location in the 2nd ad is a significant miss.
So, while it’s good to see the wind beneath this theme’s sail—pun intended, of course—still continuing after 9 years, it also seems like both the client, and the agency (named Mullen Lintas, now) have gotten carried away—pun intended, again—by their theme that was once contextual, and is now a force-fit.