Love me, and I'll love you back!

The new campaign for Britannia's NutriChoice Multigrain Thins highlights the goodness of a healthy snack, which does not harm you, but loves you back.

After the launch of the 'Diabetic' campaign last year, Britannia returns with a new campaign for its newly-launched healthy snack brand NutriChoice Multigrain Thins. The new campaign, with the tagline 'It loves you back,’ promotes the goodness of a healthy snack.

Conceptualised by Lowe Lintas and Partners, the three television commercials titled Friend, Girlfriend, and Family, show situations where the protagonists throw away their old fried snacks since the snacks do not love them back, but instead harm them, and switch to NutriChoice Multigrain Thins. A voiceover says, 'Finally, a snack that loves you back'.

Speaking about the idea, Anuradha Narasimhan, category director, health and wellness, Britannia Industries, says, "It was evident from our research that people love snacking. However, they feel guilty, as they know that fried snacks are bad for health, and cause harm to the body, and never return the love people have for snacks. Consumers were seeking 'guilt-free snacking'. We termed it as a snack that loves you back."

Arun Iyer, national creative director, Lowe Lintas and Partners, explains, "People love eating snacks, but consuming junk snacks leads to development of various health issues, which also brings alive the idea that a snack never reciprocates the same feeling of love that people have for them. So, we said we have a snack which is healthy to eat, does not harm the body, but rather 'loves you back'."

Incidentally, the campaign tagline 'It loves you back’, is the same as that of Honda Brio. According to Iyer, the team was half-way with this concept, when the Honda Brio campaign was launched. "We did not pull back the idea, as we felt that this one establishes a better connection, as compared to the Honda Brio commercial," says Iyer.

Not original enough?

Advertising professionals believe that the campaign loses ground due to the same positioning as that of Honda Brio, despite being a fresh idea.

Rajeev Raja, creative consultant, DDB Mudra, says, "There have been instances of two different categories with the same position, and I would attribute that to creative coincidence rather than a deliberate attempt to copy. The brand that comes out with an idea first always has the advantage. The brand that follows, naturally, loses out on the originality quotient. Which is why it's important to check whether your idea has been presented before; sometimes you just haven't seen some work that's out there with a similar idea. But today, with YouTube and Google, it's much easier to do this."

According to Raja, in the particular case of Brio and Britannia, the tagline is exactly the same. And, it is known which came first. So, even though it could be a creative coincidence, comparisons are bound to be made, and in this case unfortunately, Britannia will lose out.

Narayan Devanathan, senior vice-president and national planning head, Dentsu Marcom India, remarks, "We have become so disconnected with other human beings in a hyper-connected world that we look for love from non-human beings. And, while one brand tells you it loves you back might just be an aberration, barely six months later, we have one more with exactly the same promise."