Life in clay

Can characters of clay really sell a fizzy drinks brand? Coca-Cola expects to find out soon with its new campaign.

The Indian cricket team's overwhelming victory over Pakistan in the recent one-day series was not only thrilling for the Indian cricket enthusiast, but also for McCann Erickson, the advertising agency of Coca-Cola.

McCann had carefully chosen to put the brand's new claymation commercial on air during the matches' ad breaks. Er, claymation? The word is short for "clay animation", and involves the moulding of clay models in a series of poses which are then filmed to give a semblance of real-life motion.

Coca-Cola's current commericals were made in Mexico for the Latin American soccer audience, according to Prasoon Joshi, McCann's creative chief for the region.

"We have done a few minor changes to suit the Indian audience in terms of commentary, voice and editing changes," says Joshi.

The creative idea "" of victim and victimiser celebrating sports victories in unison "" was thought to be relevant across markets. So there's a chef whose chicken-slaughter is interrupted by news of a victory, a scientist whose rat experiment gets a break, a man whose tree-cutting needs to stop awhile, and a fly-swatter that must quit swatting for a moment of celebration with the fly.

Claymation, says Joshi, lends humour to the story of gory climaxes getting shortcircuited by joyous news.

Hutch, ICICI Prudential, Amaron batteries and Top Ramen are the other brands using claymation in India, a technique that traces its local lineage to Channel [V]'s Space Khalasi series, made locally.

Claymation costs a lot more (almost four times more by one estimate) and takes much longer than other forms of advertising. It is also a little controversial. So what draws agencies to it?

According to Meenakshi Bhalla, former vice-president at O&M and current president of Ogilvy PR, it helps to break the clutter of commercials on television. The brand recall for claymation ads also tends to be higher than other ads.

But at the end, like with any use of attention-getting elements (such as cinema icons), it is the inherent twist in the story, the soundtrack and editing that must all play a role in delivering success.

The medium helps illustrate the creativity of any story with a unique twist, adds E Suresh, an animator with Famous House of Animation, who created the Amara Raja's Amaron Batteries' commercial.

Joshi, however, issues a mild word of caution. It's a path laden with some degree of risk. Claymation fatigue, for example, could set in. What he doesn't say, though, is that not everybody is equally enthralled by the medium.