Karthik SJioMart's new ad campaign (agency: L&K Saatchi & Saatchi) has a really clever conceit that unravels only at the 18/19-second mark in both the 30-second ads 😁
Please read the rest only after watching the 2 ads.
(Spoilers ahead) 1/4
2/4 The ad's narrative style reminded me of Jaquar's 2022 IPL campaign (See: https://bit.ly/jaqlight) to some extent because of the creative device used. Both ads involve showing us something that is not actually happening in the real world. In the Jaquar ad series, it was the imagination of the person who asks what's going on, while in the JioMart ad series, what we see is the forced offline equivalent/version of what happens inside a WhatsApp chat window.
3/4 But there's a crucial difference in the way the creative device has been used.
In Jaquar's ads, that imagined scene led to a preposterous situation that you cannot get your eyes off because of how bizarre and improbable it is, and works as a terrific hook to draw you in. But in JioMart's ads, what we see, a group of people standing and watching a water leak, or a group of women doing something in a single bedroom, is not entirely implausible.
4/4 Where the JioMart ads score is when the penny drops, mid-way. When you realize that what you have been seeing is essentially a forced depiction of a WhatsApp chat, it lends itself perfectly to what the focus of the ads is - buy via WhatsApp... that your shopping can perfectly co-exist within the world of your conversations on WhatsApp.
Good work!