| If you'd told the makers of the original movie Don that they could've shown Amitabh Bachchan shaving with a Topaz blade to popularise the brand, they would have laughed their heads off. Circa 2006. Farhan Akhtar's remake of Don, slated for release this weekend, is layered thick within-film brand promotions. |
| Shots of Shahrukh Khan with his sleek Motorola MotoRazr V3i are already all over the airwaves. But this being a wired-age Don, he is shown using Compaq laptops as well. Then there are Oakley shades and his Tag Heuer Monaco 69 watch for fans to flip open their wallets. |
| Movies, marketers have decided, sell stuff. Or at least grant brands the nicely contextualised images they otherwise spend crores developing. |
| Says Shuchi Sarkar, head of marketing, personal systems group, Hewlett Packard, "Don is a good fit for HP as the movie is a high-tech affair with gadgets and gizmos, and Compaq laptops went with the film very well." |
| The storm that Don had in mind was planned well in advance. Pepsi and PVR Cinemas, for example, have been promoting the film's neon-green-tinted imagery ("Neo 007" as someone called it) on cola cups and popcorn bags for weeks. |
| Says Gautam Datta, chief marketing officer, PVR Cinemas, "It's all about enticing people to watch the movie at PVR." |
| PVR has also struck deals with Compaq, Oakley and Tag Heuer to run contests around the movie, and will also be creating a special area in the halls called "The Don's Den", which will feature a sofa that could surpass Bunty Aur Babli's sofa as the most memorable one in recent Bollywood lore. |
| "There is huge demand for advance booking tickets," reports Datta. But does infilm promotion really work? "Yes," says Sarkar, "but only if the brand gels well with the movie." |
| The "saundarya kaa raaz" soap brand Lux may not have suited the Don's persona, but other brands are ready to have their target consumer succumb to the very hypnotic charm that the Don gives in to... or does he? |
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