India’s romance with cola did not start with “Yehi hai right choice, baby, aha”. It began with a punchline that didn’t really say anything, but managed to convey light-hearted fun – “The zing thing”.
Long before Fanta or Mirinda domination, the reigning queen of the orange soda market was Parle’s Gold Spot. For obvious reasons, it was a favourite among children.
“We were fond of Gold Spot. Although Coca-Cola was very famous those days, it was a sharp and fizzy drink, which left a bitter taste in our mouth. Gold Spot was sweet and I can recall myself standing in front of the mirror with our mouths wide open and tongue sticking out, both stained with orange colour,” said Anjana Trivedi, 45.
But Gold Spot did not just conquer the children’s segment, it also wanted to capture the youth market with stylish advertisements that showed young fashionable bell-bottomed men and young women dancing. Commercials also showed young couples skating and jiving in a cafeteria. The simple message in the jingle was: He is crazy about me, and she is crazy about me, and both are as crazy as they are for Gold Spot.
“Whenever I pass by the Parle factory in Mumbai, I go back to my school days. My school once organised a Gold Spot factory tour as part of the annual picnic. And when we sat back in the bus, our lips were stained with orange colour,” recalled Sanket Chaturvedi, a 53-year-old banker.
Behind the scene
Gold Spot’s owner Ramesh Chauhan, the chairman of Parle Products, bitterly opposed the entry of American cola companies in the late 1980s. He also owned Thums Up and Limca. Till then, Gold Spot ruled the market with its innovative ads and a good understanding of its demographic.
“Some years after the launch of Gold Spot, the company faced some problem with its flavour. They decided to introduce a minor change in the flavour and called us to design the campaigns,” said Prahlad Kakkar, the celebrated adman who created both “The zing thing” and “Yehi hai right choice baby, aha” punchlines.
Kakkar shot an advertisement, which would also talk about the company’s product Limca.
“The ad was shot in a college canteen and we wanted a funny looking fellow to talk about ‘Limca’ and then say, ‘Oops, I forgot, it’s a Gold Spot campaign’,” Kakkar recalled.
“The idea was vague and as presumed, it turned out to be a tough task for the entire team as Ramesh [Chauhan] was not sure about it. He said, ‘How can we talk about Limca here, it’s silly.’ After a lot of back and forth, he was convinced. After all, we wanted something silly to get noticed.”