Priti has spent over 15 years in advertising and has worked on some of the major FMCG and durable brands in the country creating campaigns for all media including film, radio, press, outdoor and rural. Priti began her career as a copywriter at DART Advertising in 1990 and moved onto being Creative Director at Chaitra Leo Burnett, a part of the Publicis group in India where she handles brands like Coca Cola, Limca, Ariel and Complan. With Lowe since 1998 as Creative Director, her portfolio have included brands from Unilever’s Household and Personal Care division as well as AT&T (Idea Cellular) and the famous Balbir Pasha Campaign for Population Services International. She has done award wining work on Axe and was responsible for launching it in India. One of the biggest Axe success story internationally has been India and how India managed to tap into Indian culture keeping intact the personality of Axe. Priti has won national and international awards for several pieces of work. Her more recent work that she is proud of is Surf Excel Puddle, Greenply, Camlin Exam, Liril, Idea and Bombay Natural History Society.

In the 70’s Alyque Padamsee made a bar of soap an item of fantasy. The Liril girl and her splashing routine under the shower-turned-waterfall were aimed at every working woman who got ten minutes every morning completely to herself when she stepped into the bath. These ads, through their journey into the decades, retained the essential spirit of fun and indulgence. Various girls in various clinging dresses danced, spun, and got blissfully drenched under the shower.
But in 2004 Liril’s old appeal and its catchy jingle disappeared to be replaced with a slick, chic, positively international campaign that did away with both the soap and the shower. The Liril girl is now a South African beauty who plays a game of catch-as-catch-can with a besotted beau. Playful indulgence is replaced with playful sex. And the jingle changed too. In effect, the brand changed and acquired a distinctly sexy new aura. Behind the creating of this new avatar is Priti Nair, executive creative director at Lowe, Mumbai. She talks to us about when sex sells. And when it repels.

Why did you decide to change Liril’s image?
The old image worked very well for the brand, but recently this approach hadn’t been going anywhere. The time came to move the brand away from its established groove and set it under a new light. Besides, the product itself changed. Where the old Liril was all about lime-freshness, now it is lime plus aloe vera. So we picked a couple to represent the dual essence of the product.

The ad’s appeal has changed very dramatically from frolicsome indulgence to naughty sex. Why this decision to tie sex in with a product unrelated with sex?
Liril has always been about a girl’s fantasy. This idea was extended from enjoying a shower to being courted by her man. When it comes to personal products for women, sex is never entirely misplaced or unrelated. Being attractive to the opposite sex is simply another fantasy that we’ve depicted. Besides, there’s a difference between sexual and sensual; and Liril is all about sensuality.

Given the content of the ad, have you had to deal with the moral police?
Of course we heard from them. We got the usual lines about how they cannot watch this ad with their family thanks to the sexual connotations. But really, you can’t take these people too seriously. They seem to have all the time in the world to sit around finding fault with things. The Liril ad is not done in bad taste, and depicts nothing controversial.

Even when we worked on the Balbir Pasha communications campaign – one that spoke to and helped so many people in the country become aware of and sensitive towards HIV-AIDS – there were some who came up the same lecture on morality and the like. But our conscience was clear. And really, with the kind of things we see on remix videos these days, it’s ridiculous that ads get picked on for vulgarity.
Sex in Indian ads tends to be mostly international in appearance; your ad too features foreign models. Why, when the product is aimed at national markets?

The decision is a conscious one. The ad features South African models; we wanted models who were very comfortable with their bodies and uninhibited with such overt physical displays. This is exactly the sort of free-flowing form we wanted for the Liril ad. Indian models are not as candid with this sort of emoting. Also, moral walls go up faster when Indian actors are involved.

What should an ad using sex NOT be like?
First of all, it should never ever ignore or hurt any religious sentiments. Secondly, it should be done responsibly. Those music videos with grown women dressed in school-girl uniforms are a case in point. In a country where rape and crime against women is growing every day, the use of this sort of imagery is really unethical. Thirdly, anything that is lewd or distasteful is a no-no.

Which ad in your opinion has used sex most effectively?
The Axe ads immediately come to mind. The ad takes you right to the point before copulation and it’s done so well that it brings a smile every time. That’s another ad, by the way, that uses international faces because scent is perceived as better foreign.