It's tough to find a cement commercial that's all it's cracked up to be, but India's Ambuja Cement has managed it with this amusing mockumentary starring an aging WWE wrestler.
The one-minute spot stars The Great Khali, and underlines the struggles that come with great physical strength: The muscle-bound man unveils his sensitive side while inadvertently knocking over walls, crushing ceilings and falling through floors.
All is solved by the end, though, with a little help from the client (whose logo incidentally features a muscle-man hugging a building).
The spot plays off Ambuja Cement's tagline, said Bobby Pawar, managing director and chief creative officer for Publicis South Asia, which created the ad.
"For ages, Ambuja Cement has sported the tagline 'Giant compressive strength,' " Pawar said. "We stared at that for a little less than ages, and the dominoes started falling. What if there was a giant who is too big and too strong for this world, especially his home? What if we did a mockumentary of his troubles? Wait a minute, there is an Indian giant, WWE world champion Great Khali. Hallelujah!"
Pawar said The Great Khali will be featured elsewhere throughout the campaign, including the web, billboards and in on-ground activations.
CREDITS
Client: Ambuja Cement
Director: Ayappa
Executive Producer: Anand Menon
Producer: Milin Shah
Agency: Publicis, South Asia
Agency team: Bobby Pawar, Jigar Fernandes, Jignesh Maru, Ganesh Iyer, Chandan Jha, Ankul Singh
Line Producer (Mumbai): Mrinal Chodankar
Production Manager: Rajesh Margaj
Line Producer (Delhi): Kaushik Guha, Shailendra Kaushik, Lalit Malik
Dop: Vikash Nowlakha
1st AC - Srinivas Achary
Production Designer - Mustufa Stationwala
1st ad: Karan Tejpal
DA: Mandakini Menon
Ad's - Shruti Srivastava & Akshay De
Asst Producer - Alok Potnis
Costumes: Abhilasha Sharma
Makeup - Rohini Foregard
Casting: Sumit & Bhavna
Stunt Team - Parvez Shaikh, Riyaz Shaikh, Vinit
Editor: Prakash Kurup
VFX House: Metropolitana (Spain)
Music: Sameeruddin
Sound Engineer: Kenneth Basumatari
Post: Daniel Fernandes
