Shaken and stirred

Indians waking up to their morning cuppa and daily dose of news were in for quite a bit of a surprise yesterday, when they saw ads of Pierce Brosnan holding a bottle of Pan Bahar pan masala, with the caption, ‘Class never goes out of style.’ The now-bearded actor struck a pose, reminiscent of his James Bond era, but that failed to have the desired impact, with the Twitterati picking the print and television ads featuring the former 007 apart.

“Pierce Brosnan seems to have taken ‘painting the town red’ too seriously,” wrote a Twitter user, even as others referred to the actor as ‘Jamshed Bond,’ a newly coined moniker. The television ad, shared several times by users on Facebook and Twitter shows Pierce in his special agent avatar, whacking out baddies by throwing a bottle of Pan Bahar at them, as well as charming the ladies, wooing them with the same pack.

Ad filmmaker and Bollywood director Vinil Mathew laughs, seeing the funny side of things with the ad. “Honestly, the ad looks tacky as hell,” he says. “Pierce looked almost lazy playing the Bond-esque character in it. He looked bored, and moreover, he looked amused playing the character. Guess he needed the money!”

Stand-up comedian Zakir Khan, however, thinks the casting is a masterstroke. “It’s like this: when we go out abroad, the biggest problem Indians have is that we can’t find a place to spit gutka out. I think it’s a great initiative by the brand to make sure we get foreigners into our fold too. If we can’t improve, we’ll spoil them instead!”

He adds that he can’t see the hullabaloo behind Pierce Brosnan’s new role. “Why can’t he be the brand ambassador for a pan masala brand You see women coming out of the water for cement ads, so why not this It’s like saying in order to become an actor, you must be a producer’s son.”

Gopal M.S., creative director at Tailor asserts that the Pan Bahar campaign checks all the boxes for a good ad. “The ad looks good, they’ve used the James Bond pose really well, and the social media buzz is great too.”

Vinil, on the other hand, believes that the execution went awry with this ad. “I’m not sure if it was supposed to be funny, but it sure comes across as it. Obviously, I don’t know much about the pan masala business but I don’t think using Pierce Brosnan as the brand ambassador works this way. Whether or not the ad will work remains to be seen.”

Gopal draws parallels between Pierce’s ad campaign for a pan masala brand and Hugh Jackman’s ads for Micromax phones. “I think it’s a repeat of the Hugh campaign. When you have to be aspirational, it’s a great idea to use someone like this, and who better than James Bond,” he asks. “Advertising has always used ambassadors larger than life. I think English-speaking James Bond fans may be offended. But, if you think in an Indian language, it makes absolute sense to use him. And as far as the social media booing goes, people on there need something to be offended about everyday. By the evening they will forget Pierce and jump onto another topic.”