When Diageo bought over United Spirits Limited (the world’s second largest spirits company by volume) one of the brands they acquired was Director’s Special Whisky, commonly called DSP. The brand refresh that followed soon thereafter, reflected young India’s newfound ability to work smarter, not just harder, to determine their fate and achieve their ambitions. As personified by Sid, the archetypal DSP guy, in these films.
In film 1, Sid gets a girl who’s out of his league to go out with him. He makes leading remarks about the cafeteria food, in her hearing. Assuming he’s addressing her, she’s snooty at first. And then flustered, when he pretends he’s been talking into his bluetooth headset. He parlays this into a lunch date.
In film 2, Sid needs to go to another town for a friend’s wedding. But his application for time off is rejected – quite common in Indian offices. Spotting the boss prowling the corridors, our hero drops audible hints to a colleague that the competition are making moves in said town. And hopes aloud he won’t be sent to that backwater to investigate. Which is precisely what the boss does.
In film 3, Sid needs a new bachelor pad. However, in India, people are wary of renting to bachelors. He smooth-talks his way around this prospective landlord’s bias, by weaving horrifying tales of a fictitious couple who were his former neighbors. Claiming their constant yelling and screaming is the reason he needs to move, because he’s a hard-working guy who needs his rest.
Note: For legal reasons, alcoholic beverage brands in India can only advertise surrogates such as club soda on TV.
Agency: DDB Mudra (Bangalore, India)
