Mumbai: How does one ensure that absolutely no one takes offense to content one posts online? Simple- add a disclaimer that denies any accountability or responsibility whatsoever! Taking this thought further is Mondelez India’s latest campaign for Cadbury Perk titled, what else- ‘Disclaimers’.
The digital times we live in have been shadowed by a climate of social media-triggered outrage and ‘cancel culture’. Brands and advertisements have come under the scanner for allegedly offending the sensibilities of a section of the netizens. Keeping this in mind, Cadbury Perk has come out with a quirky yet impactful campaign that throws light on today’s cancelled culture and urges the country to ‘lighten up’. To bring the ‘Cadbury Perk Disclaimers’ campaign alive, tongue-in-cheek disclaimers have been inserted into popular YouTube videos, to draw attention to the most trivial things that people may take offense to in today’s times.
Reiterating the brand’s proposition of ‘Take It Light’, the campaign conceptualised by Ogilvy, highlights how people today have become overly sensitive and take offense over the smallest things, and need to lighten up. The inserted disclaimers that border on the hilarious help draw attention to the most trivial things that people may take offense to in today’s times. While the internet bursts with criticism at literally every scroll, this campaign urges netizens to chill and lighten up a little.
Mondelez India vice president - marketing Anil Viswanathan said, “‘Cadbury Perk Disclaimers’ is our attempt at addressing the growing cancel-culture, especially the most trivial things posing as strong triggers - right from someone’s hair or holiday plans. Whether it’s a website or a post on Instagram, this culture has augmented the use of disclaimers, and we aim to parody this trend through offbeat disclaimers calling out the frivolousness of some of these issues. Thus, just like Cadbury Perk, urging everyone to ‘Take It Light’.”
To do this, the brand created disclaimers for the most trending videos and top video searches and then used back-end automation to further customise them for countless videos.
The campaign is supported with a digital film that puts the spotlight on controversies the country has witnessed playing out on social media platforms on a frequent basis, which is invariably followed by an apology and another wave of criticism debating the very nature of it. The film concludes by showcasing the brand’s idea of placing mock disclaimers for the most trending videos across genres on YouTube, about hilariously absurd reasons to be offended, thus driving home the message, ‘Cadbury Perk Khao, Light Ho Jao’.
Ogilvy India chief creative officer Sukesh Nayak said, “These days we get triggered by anything and everything. Perk has a history of work that has always stood for keeping things light and fun. So, our idea is quite fun and modern, adding a fun warning before any video that you may watch. Ensuring things remain light, no matter what.”
“Through Perk Disclaimers campaign, we intend to create a counterculture to the habit of finding something controversial in the most unexpected of topics,” added Wavemaker India chief client officer & head – West Shekhar Banerjee. “To give the campaign scale, we needed to find the content most watched by the youth. Since this could mean a massive number of videos, we leveraged the power of AI and automation to create custom ad versions and deployed them against the video which suited it the most. We have created a custom API with Google that would help get a pulse on the most trending videos on YouTube. Custom bumpers would then be created and played before top trending videos on YouTube.”
The campaign is currently live on YouTube and will be further amplified through other relevant digital platforms and content creators, the brand said. Similarly, there would be multiple renditions of the core campaign proposition- whether in the form of a fun consumer or influencer engagement, to remind people to ‘Take It Light’.
