TV COMMERCIAL OF MERIL SPLASH SOAP

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE TVC

When was the commercial aired? 27th July 2014

Duration of the TVC: 80 seconds (or 1 min 30 secs)
Title: Fresh is beautiful
Agency: Sun Communications
Director:
Mustafa Sarwar Farooki
Casting: Nusral Imroze Tisha and other artists

STORYLINE:

The story is based on the stereotypical views of the Bangladeshi people regarding the dark
skinned people. Darker skin inherently gives an impression of being inferior to the fairer people
(especially women) in terms of attractiveness. It seems, that talent or any other attribute is of
no use if one has darker complexion.

For years, the fairness creams have campaigned with the messages such as: ‘Be fair, be more
confident”. They would either use chants and catchy jingles to deliver this or they would stage a
scenario where becoming fair changes people’s perception about a lady, thereby granting a
better life for the lady.
Meril Splash has hence created a huge stir in the media because its core message was ‘Fresh is
beautiful’. It starts off with a shot of a newborn ‘dark skinned’ baby being pampered by her
mother with an old lady muttering in the background “God knows who is going to marry her”. It
moves on to another frame where a bright and enthusiastic child expects to get the role of the
princess in her school drama. She ultimately gets turned down for the role because she wasn’t
fair enough. A pregnant woman is asked to eat more and more milk and banana because her
mother in law would not accept a dark skinned grandchild. There are shots of an exhausted
woman in a bus. She is exhausted from the struggle of survival. And she is exhausted from the
social pressure that are exerted towards her through the countless adverts to bring ‘fairness’ in
her skin. Its behind other buses, it's on billboards, it's everywhere.

“স ৌন্দর্য গায়ের রং নে, সে মায়নই ু ন্দ র.”

We go to a shooting spot. The director keeps asking to put more make up in an attempt to make
the female actor more beautiful. In response to that she says, “Is being fair the only form of
beauty? Beauty can exist in white, black and brown.”

Within this 1 minute and 30 seconds, the director provokes a tempest of thought in the minds of
the viewers. The bold narrations in the backgrounds provides a synopsis to all these separate
short stories that were brought together for the advertisement. Towards the end we see shots
of beautiful and confident looking dark skinned women with a background music of “Krishno
Koli” (a song about a beautiful dark maiden). It ends with the message, “Beauty is not in the
colour of the skin. (Please) think a little fresh. Meril Splash! Beauty is freshness”.

THE TARGET AUDIENCE

The STL is one of the largest conglomerate in Bangladesh. They knows the local market very
well and they have a very effective and efficient teams how knows how to segment and target
the preeminent group for their products.

“ফ যা কায় া ননয়ে তৈরী এই নিয়েয়ের ক্ষৈটা আর কৈ গেীর হয় আমরা িু ঝয়িা ... স ৌন্দর্য গায়ের রয়ে নে
একটু ফ্রেশ চিন্তা করুন”

So for Meril Splash beauty soup, they have divided the market in three different segment to
target the most preeminent group. These are;

GEOGRAPHIC:

Country: Bangladesh
Target Area: Rural, Urban, Sub-urban
Climate: Hot, Humid and Cold.

DEMOGRAPHIC:

Gender: Female
Age: 16 – 35
Life Cycle: Married, Unmarried
Cost: Affordable
Income: Middle Income Group
Occupation: Student, Housewife, Job holders
Education: Not Necessary

PSYCHOGRAPHIC:

The target audience for this were the youngsters. The youngsters who are slowly breaking free
of the stereotypes. The youngsters who have a much better understanding of the unfair beauty
standards in the society due to their exposure to the globalized environment. This advert had
everything in it. It promoted advocacy (people believed in the message and wanted to preach it
on their own).Each of the viewer could relate this to a friend, a sister, a mother or better yet,
themselves.
THE MEDIA SELECTION AND PLACEMENT

The media for this advert was TV, Radio and social media. It created a vigorous discussion in the
comment sections of youtube and facebook. It was aired at a period where people were voicing
their thoughts about unfair standard of beauty. This is the age of women empowerment. While
the western world has progressed a lot in this field, Bangladesh is still taking the baby steps. This
was the first time where these questions were raised in Bangladesh. Western world had
insecurities about weight while we had insecurities about both weight and skin colour. People
could relate to the messages so much that majority did not hesitate to advocate the idea,
thereby promoting the product.

It was aired in all of the major TV channel of Bangladesh, like Maasranga, NTV, SATV, Channel-
i, Ekattor TV, Bangla vision, Maas Ranga TV etc.

The voice version of this TVC has also been aired on the major FM Radio station of Bangladesh,
like Radio Foorti, Radio Today, ABC radio etc.

They choose the Commercial Break of Bangla natok, Entrainment talk show, Musical program
etc. for airing this TVC.