Pepsi's Change The Game with Chelsea stars

Pepsi, in India, has largely been a cricket brand, and a big presence during World Cups and IPL. But now, they are taking a new positioning. Pepsi is trying to cash in on the vast and relatively untapped football watching market with its brand new "Change the Game" campaign, which was previously associated exclusively with cricket (remember those quirky ads about Dhoni's 'Helicopter Shot' and Bhajji's 'Doosra'? Those were actually good, even for a non-cricket fan).

The new campaign saw Ranbir Kapoor try to convince a kid to give up football and take up cricket, only to be convinced that it is he that should change the game and take up football. You can read more about the campaign and watch the original ad at exchange4media and read more at afaqs.

Now we saw a teaser ad that introduced the concept of Drogba, Lampard, and Torres taking on "apne bande," or the Indian cricketers. Little did I know that it would lead to the ad in question, pictured above. Watch the entire ad here.

So the Chelsea trio (and for those of you who don't know, these guys are legends and extremely good footballers) enters a cricket training pitch, and Drogba says, "Let's get a Pepsi." The hilarity starts here. Then they are challenged by Virat Kohli to play cricket, in a sequence that makes them all look like retards. Finally the footballers do some tricks and kick the ball to clean bowl Kohli... only for the mysterious umpire who turns out to be Dhoni to call a no-ball. Poor Torres doesn't know what a no-ball is. But Dhoni kindly explains in rofl fashion that "No-ball means... no Pepsi." Then they laugh and walk off.

I'm sorry. I tried to stay professional. But somehow when it comes to football, all bets are off.

Oh, the ad is of course by JWT, the incumbent Pepsi agency.

Now let me tell you why this ad bugs me so much, other than the obvious. It is my hope (and the hope of many others) that Pepsi's entry into the football market will be a great boost for Indian football. Pepsi is no doubt in it for their own profit. But that's okay. As long as something good comes out of it for the game, no one will care. Pepsi will be heroes, and indigenous football becomes a thing.

Hmmm. Let us at this point jump into the good and bad of it.

Good:

• Pepsi's overall attempt is a noble one (let's assume it is). Let football grow in popularity across India, supported with huge European stars. Hopefully this will overflow off into Indian football. In the links above, you will come to know about the T20 Football event and the reality show on ESPN covering it. It is all radical and exciting stuff.
• They have stuck to the positioning of "changing the game" from cricket to football. It is almost like Pepsi is gently trying to wean the public off of cricket and on to football. The roping in of major Indian cricket stars may be a masterstroke to get the attention of cricket stoics, even if it doesn't come off to well with the incumbent football crowd.

Bad:

• There is everything about the execution of the idea that is bad. Now it is probably so that the ad aims more at appealing to cricket fans, which is not a bad thing. However, they make the footballers (and everyone, actually), look like retards. Drogba should not be talking. At all. And granted that none of them are natural born actors, but surely Kohli could have done better than to look like a 10 year old teasing his little brother.
• Next comes the silly, slapstick feel of the ad. The ridiculousness with which the guys on the bench laugh, Kohli's stupid expression, Dhoni's closing line, etc. Yes, the dialogue was extremely bad. It looks like a 7th standard student wrote it.
• They did a good job to include the footballers showing off their skills. But it was obviously so edited. How does it honestly showcase their often mind-numbing trickery and skill? That too with a tennis ball. Obviously, a lot of it was edited too. They should have had a few sweet, fluid, single shots. Now I agree, if I am going with my assumption that this is largely targeted to a cricket audience, it shouldn't matter to them. They just want to see something flashy, they probably even wouldn't notice the level of skill if it was one shot. I still find this annoying, even though I speak as a football fan.
• If this was aimed at the cricket audience, well... I saw it for the first time during halftime of a football match. Sigh. So if that theory doesn't hold, they have not done enough to appease a football fan.
• Finally, the footballers lose. I don't understand this. This is reinforcing the notion of cricket's dominance over football. The whole "change the game" theme doesn't fit at all. To further that argument, why are the footballers playing cricket? Shouldn't it be the other way around? The is very disconcerting indeed. Unless this is the first part in a tiny series of commercials which will see the Boys In Blue (and I mean the Indian cricketers) trampled by the Chelsea stars on a football pitch- then this point would be moot. But as a standalone ad, it sends the wrong message.

Obviously, my objectivity has been compromised, what with football being involved. It's okay. I still have faith in the larger Change the Game campaign. It's just that this ad did little more for me personally than to make me laugh. For all the wrong reasons.