"I recorded my voice inside a walk-in closet": Piyush Pandey, on new Asian Paints ad

Over a Mumbai-Goa phone call, the veteran adman talks about his voice-over for the ad, the insights behind it, and about happy family fatigue.

"Har ghar chup chaap se ye kehta hai,

Accha lagta hai,

Jab sab koi andar rehta hai..."

Says the voice-over in the new Asian Paints ad. It’s veteran adman Piyush Pandey’s voice.

This is the second ad from Asian Paints’ new series #StayHomeStaySafe.

The first ad, a recreation of the iconic 2007 ad, talks about what we're doing inside our homes now.

There are two similarities in both ads – our homes are the centre of attention, and the voice-over artiste is Pandey, chief creative officer worldwide & executive chairman India, Ogilvy.

"I recorded the voice inside a walk-in closet," remarks Pandey, and for good reason, too. According to him, on one side of his Goa home, where he's right now, dogs were barking, and on the other, his wife Nita Pandey, a creative director, had tied chimes to the tree.

This isn't the first time his voice can be heard in an ad. He's lent his voice to brands like Fevicol, SBI Life Insurance, LG's corporate campaign, and Asian Paints, of course.

The first Asian Paints ad with the tagline 'Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai' came out in 2007. "It just dawned upon me that a house is an expression of your personality," says Pandey. He says that each home has elements that express the personality of the person who lives there. "It will always have a certain touch of its occupants," he says.

Talking about the recent ad 'Har Ghar Chup Chap Se Kehta Hai', Pandey told us that after doing the first one about staying home, he had a discussion with Sukesh Nayak, CCO, Ogilvy India.

"I said this time, it is the house (the room) which is applauding the occupants because they now have the time to look after it. People giving back to their home is the angle I took," Pandey stated.

As he talked about the ad's insight, Pandey remembered his mother's words, 'Agar tum kapdo ki kadr karoge toh kapde tumhari kadr karenge', which translates to 'If you respect your clothes, they will respect you.'

He then said, "If you look after the house, the house will look after you." And that's what, he says, the ad shows, "How happy is the house (now) that you're looking after it."

About the risk of consumer fatigue setting is as a result of seeing unrealistically happy, chirpy families in 'lockdown ads' these days, Pandey says, "If it's repetitive, then yes, viewers will grow fatigued. But, at this time, being too realistic is also not the right thing to do. People are in trouble, they’re stressed, and they don't want to see the problems. After all, everybody has to stay inside... Nor should we paint pictures that are not true."

This ad, like all other ads during the ongoing lockdown, was shot inside homes. However, looking at the quality, we wondered if Pandey and his team had breached lockdown rules to shoot the clips.

His response, "I'm working with the government on the lockdown. If I/we did step out, it would spell trouble." (Ogilvy is doing a campaign with the government to combat Coronavirus.)

The people in the ad are Ogilvy employees and others who work with the director Neha Kaul, of Corcoise Films. "Everyone is someone we knew," said Pandey.

He went on to say that everyone in the ad is doing something we all do at our home. "We were remembering all the things we do at home. Cleaning dust and cobwebs from the corners (which we rarely do)... We basically wanted to capture what actually happens inside a home."

On the consumer fatigue of seeing happy families in the ad, during the lockdown, Pandey says, "If it's repetitive, then yes, viewers will grow fatigued. But, at this time, being too realistic is also not the right thing to do. People are in trouble, they’re stressed, and they don't want to see the problems. After all, everybody has to stay inside... Nor should we paint pictures that are not true."

On the ad’s execution, he said that having editors and music directors, who've got a setup or a studio at home, helped to get things done. "We've got to find such people so that we don't have to go anywhere."

Also Read: Director Prasoon Pandey on how the short film ‘Family’ was shot

As we‘re about to wrap up the conversation, he mentioned his brother Prasoon Pandey, ace director and co-founder of Corcoise Films, and his short film 'Family'. Featuring some of the biggest stars of Indian cinema, the film was shot entirely at home during the lockdown. "That was a classic example of doing something brilliant from home," he signs off.