No no no no no no no!

Here we have an ad that fails on innumerable levels. Where to begin?

How about with target audience, or lack of understanding thereof?

Accuse me not of chauvinism when I say this, but cooking oil is a female product. It lives at the heart of the domain of ‘mke nyumbani’. Now in most Kenyan homes, especially of the middle-class variety, there are actually two females in the home, the ‘madam’ and the ‘house-help’. Either way, this ad is guaranteed to go so far over both their heads that it might as well be a billboard on the moon.

Now I happen to be a great fan of Sachin Tendulkar, and a lover of cricket in general, but outside of the Asian community, in this market, cricket is about as niche a sport as they come – up there with polo, hang-gliding, American football and mah-jongg. Even within the Asian community, as with all communities, sport is essentially a male domain. It’s a bit like using Dennis Oliech to sell nappies to Kenyan housewives. They may well know who he is (sort of), but it just don’t make no sense!

Let’s ‘drill down’ further shall we? The basic idea or proposition, such as there is, in this ad is that Elianto is, and I quote, “famous for helping you score again and again in the kitchen”. The strap-line, which is new to me, is “The famous corn oil”.

This to me is a classic example of muddled thinking. The objective of advertising is very much to make a brand famous. However no one in the history of advertising has ever made a brand famous simply by stating that it is famous. That just ain’t how it works. If it did, then every two bit MC on the street corner would be famous, but the ain’t, mostly with good reason.

FMCG brands like Elianto are the bread and butter and jam of advertising. They are highly commoditized products in very competitive categories.

Unilever, amongst the masters of these kinds of brands, have a very simple strategic approach to their advertising from which they have essentially not deviated for the last 100 years. It goes like this: first communicate the functional benefit, then communicate the emotional benefit, then run some testimonials, then repeat. If it ain’t broke…

This ad here is a very weak attempt to communicate a questionable emotional benefit. Yes I’m sure that some ‘mke nyumbanis’ want to have a ‘famous kitchen’, but is that really the heart of the matter?

Capturing the emotional benefit of a brand is one of the trickiest endeavors in all of advertising. Contrary to popular opinion, it is nowhere near as trite as banging on a picture of a smiling face and leaving it at that.

It is about getting to the heart of the emotional need that a brand helps its consumer to fulfill in their life. When we are talking about cooking oil, and the consumer is mke nyumbani, then we are talking about the basic wifely and motherly needs to have a satisfied husband, healthy/happy children and lots of laughter around the dinner table.

Furthermore, in commoditized categories such as this, it is important to demonstrate what your brand delivers functionally that allows it to deliver emotionally… it’s 100% pure… it’s organic… it’s not corn, it’s maize… it’s good for the heart… it’s fortified with vitamins… it’s flavored with tea… whatever… you must give people a ‘reason to believe.’

I have been in this game long enough to be able to read from an ad who wrote/conceived it. This is not necessarily a bad thing – a Tarantino film is not a bad film just because it’s obviously a Tarantino film. However, it is obvious when a creative’s personal inclinations and preferences have over-ridden any attempt at empathy with the people to whom one is talking. This is a criminal offence, as is this ad.