Comment

The Sun Direct TVC (television commercial) has two men having a conversation. Ideally, the column in its attempt to be funny, should start and end here, but there is a lot more to understand. Unfortunately, however, there may not be a better joke than the opener throughout.

First, a quick revision. The two guys first met at a traffic signal, where they discussed their bike. Then, on the way, one of them met a new brand manager for some TV service and took that offer up. The morning after, they were on their terrace discussing a cricket match. The thin guy won the first time at the signal; the second round on the terrace went to the fat one. Having run out of places where men talk (given that in bars they only slur), the agency decided to shoot the third film featuring India’s very own Laurel and Hardy in a place where very few men dare to go— the gym. (Most men don’t like hitting the treadmill because they feel they have their life to walk around without going anywhere anyway.)

The ad portrays a gym very in its true light (dim), with only three people working out, one of them female. These two men, being brand ambassadors now, are health conscious and it’s natural they hit the treadmill. (The treadmill hits back but that is not shown.) But in spite of being on a treadmill, they are still men. So, naturally, they talk about the only second other thing men talk about apart from liquor— TV. Here too, the battle of egos commences as they begin discussing who is watching what. 130 channels (needed, since surfing is the new watching); 40 add-on packages (needed, since the 130 mainly play ads). Zee, Star, Colors, Bindaas, NDTV Imagine.

Of course, they do not go into details of what they are watching on these channels, which is the agency’s honest attempt to suggest there is nothing to watch on them in the first place. The sundry listing done, they turn to the third thing men talk most about — money.

The fat guy, hoping to win this one too says “525”, only. It’s clear he is talking about the fees of his TV service since gyms fees and bar bills are much higher. The thin guy, however, squashes all hopes by revealing he too uses the same service with a code word befitting the vocabulary of a kid in Jr KG or a boy band: ‘Tan Tana Tan.’ It’s a rare tie.

The fat guy is shocked. But hearing the three most meaningful words after his favourite Backstreet Boys track, the fat guy goes from being bewildered to ecstatic. The moment is worth archiving to posterity. Two guys agreed on something, that too, in a gym. Without any love or sweat lost. Without letching at the woman on the third treadmill. They know they have created history. Immediately they become best friends; aptly proven by the fact that the fat guy lets the thin one have the last word, or rather the last three words — Tan Tana Tan.

The ad kills two birds with one stone and two treadmills. Not only does it deftly and delicately create history and a long-lasting, ego-free, beer-free, sweat-free friendship between two men in a gym, it announces Diwali packages and gives away something free (set-top boxes) in a manner far more subtle than the average politician makes promises.

This it manages to do since the viewer is still reeling under the effects of the rare tie and doesn’t notice the sale announcement to get irritated with it. Then, how does the ad work, if the main message is lost, you may ask? Naturally, the wife or the mother busy cooking in the kitchen hears only that announcement, sells the idea of saving money and they buy the service, watch TV and fight over the remote happily ever after.

It remains to be seen if there will be ‘Sun’ in each and every home just like it remains to be seen where the sweat will be shed this October — in the gym or on the gymnasium of the digestive system — the couch.

Omkar Sane is a writer and producer, and has also authored the book Welcome To Advertising, Now Get Lost.