Children love to 'SOAK'

In between various commercials which have just started, interrupting the family soap opera being intently watched by my wife, a visuals starts running with a little boy trying to soak himself in a tub full of water with the dirty clothes of his friend and exclaiming “soak karma to bhul hi gaya’’. The clip is from the surf excel commercial which is being aired in between the various soap operas. The clip ends to show another commercial of another brand. All the while my little one who has just completed his 18^th month has been full of circles around the room with his eyes gleefully reflective of the neon glow from the picture tube. He is prancing around on two feet, his hands a motion of wild waves. It is always a welcome change for him (including myself) from the soapy drama in which both of us share very little interest.

Our son who was born on the 1^st of December 2010, just loves TV commercials. By the time he was 4 or 5 months old he could train his eyes to move with the moving images on the TV screen. The TV thus became a medium to cajole him if he cried, or when he refused to feed.. so much so that, now he would simply scream at us if his favorite  TV commercial is running and it stops, as he thinks we have changed the channel. He has even started to try possession of the remote, if it is lying near him.

Any TV commercial will make him running in from whatever he was doing, gleefully screaming and prancing around the room. Like us he also has some favourite commercials which are special to him. One of his favorite is the ones featuring Priyanka chopra with the little Dalmatian pup – Chip-Chipko na-na, Squirrels doing the Kit-Kat ones, Champi-Champi (hair oil). Recently he has started to make us laugh with the hilarious performance of ‘Khujli hai bhai khujli hai’

Like some likeable ads featuring small kids, I have always liked the Surf Excel Ads of ‘Dag Acche hai’ and the numerous avatar and the more recent one with the little boy trying to soak himself in a tub of water.

All commercials have a message towards the end with a tag line and it is this tag lines which we remember and associate with a particular brand. Use of children in commercials has been a long known phenomenon – right from the ‘Farex’ baby, the most identifiable face of a baby in the 80’s.

Now we have numerous ads which are always aired with some peppy music, a peppy tag line and some very clever visuals. Some ads feature brand ambassadors like a filmstar or a cricketer.

The most memorable to me are the one, not with these brand ambassadors – but the ones where we have a kid or for that matter an animal – for example the little dog from Vodaphone.

To many people these commercials bring unnecessary interruptions – like during movies or a family soap opera or a sport. There are moments where it just seems silly enough for the spots to appear – like the one appearing in the final over of a cricket match.

Today, when I see my little one prancing around to his favorite TV commercial, I start to understand a child’s exuberance. To him brands, or the meaning of the ad does not mean anything, what make him happy is the joy he feels hearing the peppy and happy tunes, the happy faces and mood of the children, adults and other characters.

We as adults and parents have a lot of things to learn from our children. In gaining adulthood lots of us has lost the innocence of our childhood. We no longer laugh when we should, we no longer show our exuberance to the lively world around us. It’s like we have forgotten to SOAK OURSELVES in the joy of life. In a sense today’s world is like the commodity in Surf Excel ad – that is being instantly gratifying. We as adults will like the idea that we no longer need to soak our clothes as the new Surf Excel will remove the dirt instantly. But Ask the children who is playing the role model in the ad ‘whether he will like to soak?’ and he will answer ‘Yes’. It is the most exuberant answer we may get from our children, because they are not bothered by how many clothes they have soiled in a day or how their parents try to wash their clothes to make it clean again. But is the knowledge that we are their to safeguard their interest and well being and they would simply love to SOAK all the love we provide.