Julien Cayla (Australian School of Business) Interviews Nandita Chalam, Senior Creative Director, J. Walter Thompson,

Julien Cayla

Julien Cayla: Can you please tell us something about yourself before we start?

Nandita Chalam: I have always been in the field of advertising. I have worked with almost all the top agencies in India: for instance, JWT, Ogilvy and Mather and Lintas. I have worked in Africa too. I have worked in Kenya and Zambia while I was with McCann. I have worked on many multinational brands. I have worked with Unilever brands. I have worked on their soaps, Lux being one of them, detergents, cooking oil, etc. etc. Somehow, being a woman you tend to be given the household products. So, I used to cry for one of those macho brands. I used to say, “I want a macho brand, I want a bike.”

In a way it is good, because there are lots of mainstream brands like soaps, cooking oil and detergents in any agency. I also won awards for my work for Unilever while working for some of these mainstream brands. I still haven’t won an international award, say, something like a Cannes Lion, but I hope to win it someday. So, all in all, you can say that I love and worship advertising.

Julien: Tell me something about the history of Lux in India.

Nandita Chalam: Actually Lux is 75 years old in India. And strangely enough, JWT is also 75 years old in India. And the two brands have always worked together. So, the histories of JWT and Lux run parallel in a way.

Lux has always used film stars to do endorsements. It is very interesting because in the early days of Lux, I am told, there were no ad filmmakers. So the Unilever guys used to get the film directors to shoot the Lux ads. And then of course, over the years Lux came into the JWT stable. The first Lux star ever was a lady called Leela Chitnis.1 And of course, Aishwarya is the ambassador now and we have as well.2 So, traditionally Lux has always used the top stars of that era. All the Lux stars, when they are offered Lux, consider it like they have arrived. When Lux turned 75, they rigged up a campaign, it was actually a promotional campaign to celebrate 75 years of Lux and the actual promotion was something very small. Nothing very big. But we had created a special edition range for the 75 years using stars of all ages. It would have been expensive to use all of them in too many commercials. So we used four of these iconic stars who have endorsed Lux for a longer period. But still, when the client briefed us, I was particularly feeling that, this is 75 years man! I mean it doesn’t happen every day, so let’s do something different. It should be something that people would remember.

Shah Rukh Khan was at the height of his popularity at that point of time.3 Our model coordinator told me that Juhi Chawla would tell Shah Rukh about the Lux campaign.4 Juhi and Shah Rukh are very good friends. And Shah Rukh would jokingly say to Juhi, “You know, you guys have all the fun, you get to soak in the tub the whole day. Why don’t you offer me Lux? I will do it.”

1 So, she came and told me this. I remember, I thought why not ask him, because he himself has said that he would love to do it. Then we actually went and met him. We were not sure whether he would do it. I wrote a script especially for him; it was a little tongue in cheek: he is in a tub (where normally the girls are), and the girls are all around him. And he is trying to be a superstar. “Lux is now 75 years old; to celebrate 75 years we need a superstar. So, who else could they think of but me?” And then, the girls dunk him into the tub. That is the gist of the film. But he starts doing the thing that all stars of Lux do in the tub. They say: “Lux is the secret of my beauty.” It was very cute of Shah Rukh to say that. Everybody knows that Lux does not use that slogan any more. But for fifty years if there has been a memorable line in Indian advertising; it’s one of the lines that is remembered. And of course we couldn’t do away with our big stars. So we put the same four stars on the packaging for the soap.

Video 1. Lux spot with .

Julien: It was very playful in a sense.

Nandita Chalam: Yes, it was very playful and though he had said it in jest we didn’t know whether he would really do it. Therefore I went personally to his house. Of course I am a big Shah Rukh fan myself and just needed an excuse to go to his house. I was very surprised when he said yes. He said, “Of course I will do it, why wouldn’t I do it?” And after that it was just a matter of money, but this is not his regular endorsement. It was going to be a one- off. Little Shah Rukh forever. He especially liked the idea of himself being the only male star surrounded by four beautiful women [of all ages].

Julien: One of the interesting things is that he was playing with his image.

Nandita Chalam: Yes, he was playing with his image. I wouldn’t say it was a risk, but to be seen endorsing a very feminine brand—you know, Lux has always been associated with women and feminine beauty—he was playing with his image. Then again, Shah Rukh is very sharp. He realised the true power of the concept. That’s why he jumped at it. That’s the reason why even I wanted to do it. Because I know it was different from any other Lux ad that I had done.

Julien: Basically the target consumer for this product is women?

Nandita Chalam: Yes, Lux is always targeted at women. It is not like men don’t use it but somehow it’s never considered to be targeted at men.

Julien: Is there any social class which uses Lux the most?

2 Nandita Chalam: Lux is actually a very mass brand. Today, Lux has got products like Body Wash which is targeted at the upper crust and younger girls. But by and large LUX is bought by the middle class India, mostly in the north. It’s a family soap, so mothers, daughters everybody uses it. Surprisingly enough, unlike in the west where people are a little sceptical about star endorsements, in India people actually believe that stars use these products. That if you use this product you will become as beautiful as .5 Even I was surprised when I started working on it but that is how it is. When I meet consumers they say that they truly believe that the stars use these products and that’s why they talk about it. That way, you can say that in India we are not a cynical bunch as yet. One strange though is that before Shah Rukh, Lux used to appeal to slightly older women.

Post the Shah Rukh ad, it has started connecting with younger people as well. They saw the humor of it. In fact, some of the older Lux audience didn’t like the idea of Shah Rukh endorsing Lux. It’s not like Shah Rukh ad was universally liked. Lots of people hated it. But the brand started looking younger, more irreverent, funnier in fact. In fact, it started connecting with younger people. When I used to go to meet Lux users, sometimes even in the same family, between the mother and the daughter, the mother would swear by Lux but the daughter would be trying something else. This is when we realized that some thing is getting dated about the brand. We needed to do something. So, there were many reasons why we did the Shah Rukh ad. One was the 75 years anniversary of the brand, another was that we needed to connect with younger people.

We would never have been able to do it without the support of the client. Especially Ashok Venkataramani. You could imagine there would be a lot of fear of doing such a campaign, especially for a client like Unilever. They didn’t want to tamper with something on which they had worked for years and we were worried, are we spoofing our own brand, are we laughing at ourselves. I mean, unlike the British, we don’t laugh at ourselves. We don’t make fun of ourselves. So they were worried that maybe we were ridiculing ourselves. Especially by using the line “khoobsurati ki raaz” [a thing of beauty] in the ad with Shah Rukh, which is like using advertising history.

Julien: You said that lots of people did not like the ad. How did you get to know about this?

Nandita Chalam: After this commercial came on air, there was so much that was written about it. There was so much extra publicity which we never thought we would get. Most of it was terrific. People said that it was Lux turning out to be a metrosexual brand.

Video 2. Montage of Lux campaigns with film stars and the publicity following SRK’s endorsement.

3 To be honest, I had never thought of it as metrosexual, heterosexual, or anything. For me it was just a 75 year old thing. And there were lots of debates as well, are we changing the positioning and all that. In the process there were letters which said: “How can they tamper with Lux, this is an iconic brand and how can they do this that...etc.”

There were lots of debates in the public domain. People wanted to know if we were changing the positioning. In the process there were letters, asking us how we can tamper with such an iconic brand. I thought I was creating history, because we were the first to use a male star for Lux. But I found out when I went to the Lux website that in the west, that Paul Newman had endorsed Lux in the past. But that didn't work. So, In fact, had I known that, I would have been more scared. But I didn't know it before. But our campaign was a big hit. The brand became noticeable. The sales shot up. It started reaching out to the young also. Since then, it has overtaken Lifebuoy in sales. Lifebuoy is the other big brand. Therefore, Shah Rukh did more than he could ever imagine. The ones who didn’t like the ad were the older traditional users who felt that we were making fun of their brand and they didn’t like that.

Julien: And where did you see those reactions about the advertisement?

Nandita Chalam: In focus groups and in letters. There is a website which had lot of people writing in. This became the most debated ad for almost 16 weeks. People were writing opinions, counter-opinions so on and so forth. For a little while I became famous. After a long time, people started interviewing me. People would ask me if I deliberately made the brand metrosexual. I attended so many conferences on metrosexual brands and I found it tough to answer questions on metrosexuality. Because it was never on my mind in the first place. It was not even there on the client’s mind. It’s just that people interpreted it that way. I think two years ago, metrosexuality was a buzzword in the Bombay society. But we didn’t plan it that way. The idea was just to do something clutter-breaking in the 75th year. And people also said that we had changed the target audience. I don't believe we tried doing that. Because Lux is aimed at women and women love Shah Rukh Khan.

Julien: Did you do any research on what women love about Shah Rukh Khan?

Nandita Chalam: Before doing the ad we did some research on the ad. We don’t usually do research on promotions. This one we researched because Levers was scared. They knew they could end up with egg on their face. But it did well in research. That’s the reason why we could go ahead and do it. Even at the research stage we did find that there were people who didn’t like it. There was no in-between. Either they liked it very much or they didn’t like it at all. But because there were more people who liked it and the brand was stagnating, we could actually take it.

Julien: So, what is it that Indian women especially like about Shah Rukh?

Nandita Chalam: I don't know about everyone, but I can tell you what I like about him. He is quick-witted. He is funny. He doesn't take himself seriously. I mean, he doesn’t have the airs of a superstar. Unlike other film stars he has been very loyal to his wife. His wife is very pretty. He is not known to have lots of affairs. He always talks about his children in his interviews. And that’s why women like him a lot. Because he is such a big star, and yet so down-to-earth. He is very ordinary looking and yet very charming. So, maybe he gives an immediate feeling that he is normal, not very handsome. To be frank, when I was shooting with him, I thought he was short and not very good-looking and all that. But he is amazing

4 because he lights up the screen. Some people just have that. Some very good-looking people don’t look good on screen. Shah Rukh is quite good on screen.

Julien: What about his shaved chest? Did you shave it specifically for the ad?

Nandita Chalam: No, Shah Rukh doesn't have any hair on his chest. I think a lot of Bollywood stars who go for body building also go for laser removal. Salman has no chest hair.6 Hrithik has no chest hair.7 It’s obviously a cultivated thing. We didn’t do it (laughs). But lots of people have asked me. He looks so funny. So feminine, etc. But I think he looked nice.

Julien: I remember six or seven years ago, when I first came to Bombay, I realised that Shah Rukh Khan in a sense owned the imagination of the city, in the sense that every hoarding [billboard] and every television advertisement would depict him. The fact that he is everywhere, is that a problem for brands seeking to…

Nandita Chalam: You are right actually. Because between Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachhan and Sachin Tendulkar, I think they endorse at least one brand in every category from hair oil to cola to everything.8 Sometimes you can't even make out which one is what. That’s why I personally believe that if you use a celebrity, unless you link him very closely with the brand, it’s actually a waste of money. Because what eventually happens is that you pay them so much, they are all over the place and people can't even make it which brand they are endorsing. I think the way we used him in Lux was actually terrific because if you show an image of Shah Rukh in the tub everyone will say that it is Shah Rukh in Lux ad. No one will say it’s Shah Rukh in the Pepsi ad. Because he was stripped, he was in a tub with petals, so unless when you use a celebrity, if you don’t make him yours, in some way, in the way you style him, the way he looks, then it becomes, as you say, one of the billion brands that he endorses and very likely people wouldn't remember. So that danger is there. Like for instance, when we had released the Shah Rukh ad, Amul, which always does hoardings on something topical, had done a hoarding which I consider as a tribute to our Lux ad.9 It had Shah Rukh in the tub with the Amul girl by the side and they called it “lick” instead of Lux in the true Amul tradition. Celebrities do tend to endorse too many products and they are genuinely all over the place, and it is a challenge for the advertiser to think of how they can make them good for the brand.

Julien: He looks quite princely in the commercial.

Nandita Chalam: This was the director’s suggestion that he should sit like that. The king of the tub! I think that worked for him. It was only the eldest actress, Hema Malini, who is old enough to be his mother. She kept saying, “Don’t ask me to look at him with adoring eyes.” She is very down to earth. She very enthusiastically took part in the dunking which they all enjoyed. Even Shah Rukh was very sporting about it.

Julien: One of the other things about Shah Rukh Khan is that he recently did the “Fair and Handsome” ad.

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Video 3. Fair and Handsome facial cream spot. (Shown with permission from www.srkpagali.net.)

Nandita Chalam: I feel that the Lux ad was like a forerunner because Fair and Handsome came later. But Fair and Handsome is a men's product.

Julien: Right, as opposed to Lux. So, one of the last questions, I was wondering what you thought about the Fair and Handsome Campaign. You think it was a successful campaign?

Nandita Chalam: Well, I have seen the Fair and Handsome ad but in that Shah Rukh is not using the product. He is just like a spokesperson and asks the other guy why he uses a woman’s product. Maybe it also means that he is also using it. But it is more of him advising others to use it. He is kind of endorsing it. I don't think it is a particularly creative ad. But people do it. I mean, like Shah Rukh himself has said that he does endorsements for money. You pay him a price and he will do it. Unless it is something he really hates. For their creative satisfaction these guys do their films. But the advertisements and endorsements are for money. But Lux, because it was not a regular endorsement, we couldn't even afford to pay him the fee. He did the Lux ad because he liked the script. And he actually told us that he was reducing his price for us all because it was a one-off and not a regular endorsement.

Julien: One thing when you talked about Shah Rukh Khan, if I think about it, he talked about his wife and his family. The female stars, especially in their 20s and 30s, I never really hear them talking about their family life. I mean, maybe men are exceptions but girls are really supposed to be single. And for Shah Rukh to be married is ok with the public?

Nandita Chalam: I think we have some double standards; the men being married is ok. The women stars tend to fade away after their marriage. In the olden days, they even used to hide the fact that they were married. But with the men, it doesn’t seem to affect their popularity at all. Shah Rukh and Hrithik are the best examples.

Julien: The next question, of the female stars, Aishwarya Rai is doing the Lux campaign. How many of them are doing the campaign now?

Nandita Chalam: In fact Aishwarya has been on Lux from the time I came, which means it has been almost five years. She's been one of the longer brand ambassadors of Lux. Before that, one of the longest reigning Lux stars was Juhi Chawla. Usually the younger star tends to endorse the younger brand which is usually the body lotion. Even that star keeps changing over time. Right now, Lux also has Priyanka. But she has just started endorsing Lux. That’s why people remember Aishwarya Rai. That’s why the association is more with Aishwarya than with others. The others have come and gone and have changed but Aishwarya has been there for a while.

6 Julien: What is the rationale for the selection of the second star for the body lotion?

Nandita Chalam: The body wash is first of all an expensive brand. The normal Lux users can’t afford it. And it is also targeted at younger girls first jobbers, just out of college, eighteen to twenty-four. That age group. So the whole tonality tends to be different. Therefore we thought it would be nice and credible and different if we use a younger star for bodywash. Lux also uses, in the south of India, south Indian stars, but those are not very well known in the north. Especially there are some brands of Lux which do well in the south. You know, with herbal variants.

Julien: So, you have ads in other languages than Hindi, say in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam?

Nandita Chalam: So, so far we have had Tamil and Telugu stars to advertise in those languages.

Julien: But you have mentioned that Lux sells mostly in the north, the Hindi-speaking regions.

Nandita Chalam: It sells more in the north than in the south. It does sell in the south as well, but more in the north.

Julien: Is there any particular reason for that?

Nandita Chalam: This is what I have been told, I don't know per se. The Lux promise of glamour and beauty appeals to the north Indian Punjabi women much more than it does to the south Indian woman who is very rational. So, she needs things like herbal, natural, those kinds of products, soaps like Medimix. Those kinds of soaps sell more in south. South Indian women tends to be more down-to-earth people so therefore this whole thing of film stars and airy-fairy glamour perhaps doesn’t appeal as much to her as it does to the north Indian woman.

Julien:Thanks a lot for the interview.

Nandita Chalam: My pleasure.

Notes

1 Leela Chitnis is an actress who died in 2003. She was an early Bollywood actress and appeared in more than 40 films (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leela_Chitnis).

2 (known simply as Aishwarya in the popular media) has won two best actress awards and appeared in films in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, and English (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aishwarya_Rai).

Priyanka Chopra is an actress and was Miss India World and Miss World 2000. She has won awards for Best Female Debut by an actress and Best Female Villain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priyanka_Chopra).

3 Shah Rukh Khan is an acclaimed actor, film producer, and TV host (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahrukh_Khan).

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4 Juhi Chawla was Miss India 1984 and is an actress, film producer, and television presenter. She appeared in more than 70 Hindi films in the 2000s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juhi_Chawla).

5 Hema Malini is an actress and a Bharatanatyam dancer (Bharatanatyam is a form of Indian classical dance). She is considered the most successful female star of Bollywood and a living legend. She is now a member of India's Bharatiya Janata Party and represents the party in Rajya Sabha, the upper House of Parliament, but still appears in films. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hema_Malini).

6 Salman Khan is a successful Indian film actor and has won awards for Best Male Debut and Best Supporting Actor. He is known for being a dedicated bodybuilder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Khan).

7 Hrithik Roshan began his career as a child actor in the 1980s. He is currently one of Indian cinema’s most popular actors and has won Best Male Debut award and numerous Best Actor awards (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hrithik_Roshan).

8 is a legendary Indian actor who became famous for his role as the “angry young man” action hero in the 1970s and continues to act today. He holds the record for the highest number of Best Actor nominations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amitabh_Bachchan).

Sachin Tendulkar is a famous Indian cricketer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachin_Tendulkar).

9 Amul is a brand of dairy products that is famous for its cheeky billboards. For a more in- depth description of their advertising, see www.amul.com/story.html.

Nandita Chalam

Nandita Chalam is Vice President and Senior Creative Director at JWT, India's largest advertising agency, where she handles the creative duties on major Indian brands like Unilever's Lux, Rin and Rexona, Kellogg's, Unit Trust of India and Morgan Stanley.

She is a Graduate in English with a Post Graduate Diploma in Advertising and Marketing from the Xavier Institute of Communications, . She has worked in all the top three advertising agencies of India, JWT, O & M and Lintas, and also worked for some years in Nairobi and Lusaka in Africa. In her years in advertising she has launched several successful brands such as Unilever's Flora and many variants of Lux, State Bank of India's Magnum Mutual Funds, Shower to Shower, Safari Park Hotel and many others. She has won several Indian and international awards. On brand Lux she has created several out-of-the-box campaigns that have helped to push the brand to the number one position in India. The Lux ad featuring Shah Rukh Khan is one of these which created quite a ripple in the bathtub when it first appeared on Indian television.

Copyright © 2008 by The Advertising Educational Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

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