Only Pride, No Prejudice

Hello, fellow creative souls!

A poem I read in 5th grade spoke about how Kings and Presidents go through mundane things in life too— like us, the common man. My English teacher very graciously pointed out about how Pratibha Patil, the Indian President at the time, could be hungry considering it’s close to lunch hour and none of us would know. The moral was to point out how despite differences, we all share common, universal experiences as humans.

Today’s ad holds this as a core principle—as you’ll watch below.

It starts off like any social experiment would. A group of people— all very different from each other, yet some being similar, gather in a room. You wait for a dramatic moment, but they break the norm with the question, “Who here was the class clown?”. This brings about a chuckle before people from different walks of life take the centre stage.

What follows is a series of similar questions that sees multiple people from different groups emerging. When grouped by their (stereo)type, no one would figure out there’s anything common between the people— and that’s the beauty of this ad, because this notion is exactly what it’s trying to break.

This ad identifies and challenges misconceptions about societal decisions, illustrating that despite different backgrounds and beliefs, people share more commonalities than they realize. It finds beauty in diversity, the positives in perceived negatives and also converts weaknesses to strengths.

Ads that talk about human experiences stick because of the relatability— and if the storytelling is nailed, it will be timeless. Here are some ideas for you to adapt the same ad:

• An Electric Car company could group a bunch of customers to discuss the widespread ‘Charge Anxiety’ to spread the message across about an extensive network of charging points

• I hope this does it - A group of celebrities - cricketers, actors, musicians, coming together to raise awareness about mental health issues and the struggles they’ve been through

So as a brand, if you have the opportunity to talk about your consumers, make sure it is in the tone of uniting them. Create campaigns that address and debunk these misconceptions with facts, testimonials, and demonstrations. Try to prove a point with smart storytelling and real data.

“Find something about your category that people have a misconception about or are biased against and prove them wrong.”

Figment is written by Abbhinav Kastura, a writer/producer who has spent a decade making impactful internet videos and Guru Nicketan, an advertising nerd, B2B Marketer, stand-up comedian, and a film buff.