| Mumbai gets a taste of the phenomenal success of the Night of the Adeaters, 25 years after its first showing in Paris.
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| The usually orthodox National Centre for Performing Arts took on an unusually festive atmosphere last Friday. The decor included a DJ working his turntable, sponsor game stalls, a flowing bar, and a motley assortment of Mumbai’s swish set hanging out like it was just another Friday night.
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| But it wasn’t — the legendary Night of the Adeaters had finally stopped in India on its 25th anniversary tour around the world, after making its presence felt in 160 other cities. Cause for celebration, notwithstanding the fact that Mongolia, China, even Iraq had been pitstops before India.
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| A labour of love for ad-mad Jean Marie Boursicot was whipped up into a collective rage among ad film aficionados across the globe when in 1981, he opened up the gates of his passion and launched the first ever Night called “Friandises” with two objectives — to share his passion, and to collect funds for the maintenance and restoration of old films.
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| The annual event became something of a fad among the Parisian avant-garde set. “It is an annual rendezvous, and the faithful return every year,” says Boursicot proudly.
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| He relates the story of how they had to stop showing in Belgrade for four years during the war — yet when they returned, much of the audience hadn’t changed despite the complete reshuffle of the political landscape.
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| The assortment of ads for each event are meticulously chosen from Boursicot’s personal archives of 7,50,000 (and growing) ad films, representing work from over 65 countries. Surprisingly, his archive is the only one globally.
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| “Do you know, no one collects ad films, not even the New York TV and Radio Museum? Twenty years ago, agencies laughed at me when I asked them for unwanted reels, today they come and offer hundreds,” he laughs.
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| The Mumbai event was the first of what Boursicot hopes will be a larger annual roll-out across Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore. The forerunner was distinctly “petit” and far less zany than the standard seven-hour event in more, shall we say, mature markets, which have a distinctly Mardi Gras flavour. As Boursicot says, “This market had to be tested first to judge people’s reactions.”
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| Alcohol, homosexuality and promiscuity were all free from the shackles of censorship, and the Indian audience lapped up its short-lived freedom; the raunchy and suggestive invoked the largest guffaws.
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| Ironically, according to Boursicot, it is China and not Saudi Arabia or Iraq that censors most content. “Except for Israeli films, the Middle East demands no censorship, so it seems like politics wins over religion. In China, on the other hand, it’s impossible to understand the reasoning behind it.”
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| The ad films are always a statement on global trends in consumerism, lifestyles and tastes but Boursicot laments the globalisation of culture: “Look on any street anywhere you go — people are wearing Nike and Adidas, drinking Pepsi and eating at McDonalds; it’s the evolution of a mono-culture.
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| Today, my audiences are entirely predictable wherever I show; they whistle and applaud at the same points. There is even a certain uniformity in ad films across the world. Companies are global, the agencies used are global —when I started out, ads were distinct from each other, but today a Chinese film looks like an American film.”
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| During the first few years, the bulk of the programme was made up of retro adverts as it tried to track the sagas of brands, but Boursicot says new audiences haven’t the patience for historic films anymore. It’s easy to see what he means.
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| The loudest cheers are for the big ad-budget brands that are most recognisable — Mercedes Benz SLK6, the Nike Airport commercial with the Brazilian soccer team, and Sean Connery for Visa.
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| The choice of ads is rarely predictable — French ads never represent more than 20 per cent of the cocktail, and hit-and-miss brands also make their way onto the screen. Boursicot shows films for artistic content rather than marketability of product.
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| “It’s my choice, not the agency’s, and definitely not the sponsor’s. In the United States, they can’t understand why I would show a Renault ad if Ford is sponsoring the show; but I insist on being free...life is too short,” reflects Boursicot.
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| After 25 years, the man is far from weary even as the show zips through Dubai, Macau, Mumbai and Zagreb, all in a week. “Some days I spend eight or nine hours screening ads. I am always on the lookout for really bad and really great films — both are hard to find.
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| Most commercials are mediocre, and sometimes even I have to use the fast-forward function,” he concludes with a twinkle in his eye. |
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