Marico Establishes Advertising ‘Code’ in New Category With First-Ever Veggie Clean Ad

The first-ever ad for the vegetable wash is created by Mullen Lintas for Marico’s Veggie Clean.

Take two spoons of salt, add it to two liters of water, add a pinch of baking soda and whisk in the juice of one lemon. To clean our vegetables most of us are used to applying DIY solutions, like these. But with the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, consumers might wonder – are these solutions enough to kill germs on fruits and vegetables?

Veggie Clean doesn’t contain any harmful preservatives, is soap-free, chlorine-free, and alcohol-free claims Marico. The ad by Mullen Lintas was conceptualized, shot, and created in COVID-19 lockdown.

Azazul Haque, CCO at Mullen Lintas, mentions that because of COVID, there is a ’new normal’, which has given rise to a hyper-cautious customer, who believes that everything has to be washed and cleaned.

“The emerging behavior of consumers is that veggies are getting washed with all sorts of things, like soap, salt, Dettol, etc. When you’re hyper-cautious and don’t have a product that can wash veggies, you turn to these alternatives,” he says. Haque adds that people are more concerned than ever about hygiene and immunity – giving rise to a new category of vegetable cleaners.

Haque explains that the lockdown began in March and the product was created in May. ”That’s the brief that came to us from Marico – it had to be informative because we’re creating an ad for a new category; it has to be explanatory and progressive.”

Haque acknowledges that not many people can afford the product, and the TG is a middle-class family who can afford to purchase the product. “The brief was to communicate that following other methods was not the right way to wash your veggies, and to create awareness about the category, the dos, and don’ts of washing vegetables.”

What are the challenges of designing a communication when there are no advertising codes to go by? “The biggest challenge is ensuring that the product does not become irrelevant when COVID is over, say three months from now. It has to create a conversation beyond the virus. We had to make sure that the ad and messaging had a longer shelf life,” says Haque.

He takes the example of a product like Dettol, claiming that if one was to visually show the antibacterial liquid, one could show germs, but that portrayal was out of the question as it would be unappealing in the context of food (fruits and veggies).

“We could not even borrow advertising codes from cleaning agents, like Harpic, or sanitizers – which visibly showcase germs getting killed. We took a conscious call not to go with that type of portrayal,” he says. Haque adds that for products like Dettol, a common advertising code is to show a doctor speaking to the audience to imply that the product is certified by the doctor.

Haque says that it is intended that a chef, who is closely related to food, is the protagonist and his daughter is the one giving advice. He adds that the reason a father was portrayed in the ad is because of what research showed – that men were cooking more frequently in lockdown as they had more time on their hands.

“The ad tries to throw light on how many people have touched our fruits, or vegetables before it reaches the kitchen – that’s where the seed of doubt begins. People can surely put two and two together since the virus spreads via touch. We feel this conversation will be valid even post-COVID. But in the future, we may focus on the fertilizers, or dirt, on vegetables. Somewhere down the line, we also wanted to be seen as progressive, as the brand leading the conversation in this category.”

Garima Khandelwal, CCO at Mullen Lintas, points out that Marico is one of the first movers in the category, and at this point, category generation is happening. She explains that the brief was to disrupt the insight that people are not following the right way to clean their veggies (by using soap and hand washes, etc., which is harmful).

Khandelwal feels that the ’new normal’ has become somewhat normal right now and you don’t need the Coronavirus to drive communication anymore. “Even a product that’s selling immunity doesn’t need to claim its relevance by saying it’s to fight against COVID-19. It’s understood.”

On the visual treatment of the ad, she claims that this ad wasn’t meant for stylized shots, it’s meant to show how to go about using the product. She adds that it’s refreshing for the brand’s language when a daughter tells her father what product to use, and stuff like that.

“It was an endearing touch and it’s cute for a dad to be told how to do something by her daughter, rather than a housewife being instructed on how to use a product,” says Khandelwal, adding that the intention is not to alienate housewives, but to embrace a better gender balance in ad portrayals.

Ekta Relan, national planning director, Mullen Lintas, says that with the Coronavirus, it was an opportunity to strengthen and create a new category. She mentions that the approach taken in the ad was to talk about the existing behavior and compare it with the new behavior that should be followed.

“Immunity and hygiene are opportune spaces right now. Whether you’re trying to sell a sanitizer, an immunity booster, or a vegetable wash, this is what consumers want. You don’t need to use the Coronavirus as a context to push your product. Consumers are already on the lookout for these products right now,” says Relan.