How HUL succeeded in breaking through the clutter with 'Surf Excel' campaign

Lalitaji may not have approved of the 'dirt is good' quip, but Hindustan Lever has succeeded in breaking through the clutter with a fresh take on this campaign for Surf Excel, which propels the humble detergent onto a pedestal. 


Advertising for Surf Excel, Hindustan Unilever Ltd's (HUL's) mass market detergent, has come a long way since the mid-80s, when Lalitaji, a know-all housewife, played by Kavita Chaudhary, hectored Indian audiences about its virtues. 

At a time when Surf Excel was in a battle with new bie Nirma (with its own emblematic twirling girl), this ad sought to position Surf Excel as a value for-money buy, with the woman telling audiences that 'Surf Ki Kharidari Mein Hi Samajdari Hain;' which loosely translates into 'it's sensible to buy only Surf '. 

The line struck a chord with the value conscious Indian housewife, the campaign went on to become one of the most recognised of the time, and Surf Excel became a household name. 

While that marquee campaign had a strong run, much has changed since the time of Lalitaji's shrill lectures on keeping clothes clean and choosing detergent wisely. As economies have opened and the market for detergents metamorphosed, Surf Excel has had to adapt to keep pace. 

Since 2004, the detergent brand's focus has changed tack, with a series of commercials, beginning with the 'dirt is good' ad, and most recently with the badappan (dignity) campaign, which used the theme of non-violence to settle scores (set in a slushy football field, with an older team prematurely ending a younger outfit's game). 

Rather than engage in a violent slushfest, Surf 's latest ad opted for the high road, having mud-caked juniors rushing to embrace their tormentors (obviously in pristine whites), only for them to flee in horror. 

Says Priya Nair, vice president - laundry, HUL: "The latest campaign is a continuation of the same philosophy and brings the value of righteousness. The value of righteousness communicates the need to have the courage to stand up for what is right." 

The campaign works because brand managers at Surf Excel are confident enough of their product to project, indirectly in this case, of its dirt-busting qualities. Freed up from this onerous task, they have since 2005, when the first of this series aired, taken an unconventional route. 

"We have worked with a set of human values, including forgiveness, with a sack race, and empathy, with a mud-soaked young student mimicking his favourite teacher's dog that has just died," says Arun Iyer, national creative director with Lowe Lintas. 

"These are the values that parents (a key constituent for Surf) like to see in their children." In an area of 24/7 television and violence all around, the latest badappan campaign also drags viewers back to a simpler time of playing outdoors and frolicking with friends. Despite being a seven year old campaign in essence, Iyer thinks this has the legs to run for a while longer. 



"The idea of finding different values and projecting them seems to be working well with people... there is rich territory yet left to explore," he says. The other reason this ad — and indeed the entire series — works well, is the connect it builds between a detergent powder and a sense of freedom. 

"It takes a low interest category like powder and turns it into a symbol of freedom," says Josy Paul, chairman and NCD of BBDO. According to Sumanto Chattopadhyay, executive creative director (South Asia) at Ogilvy & Mather, this series of ads helps Surf Excel break free from the clutter in this segment. "Detergent advertising was usually annoying in the past ... this series helps break out of that mould," he says. 

The campaign is positively virtuous in its positioning, since Surf is trying to get across a lot of learning and imbibing of key values from its slush-soaked children, safe in the knowledge that Surf can rid their dirty clothes of all the grime. "If you have a really strong idea, then it can run for seven years like this campaign has, in an era of tremendous ad clutter," adds Chattopadhyay. 

'Dirt is good' also works well for the irony in the statement — almost like a contradiction for a category that normally harps about cleanliness and whiteness. 

Still, having run this campaign for nearly a decade, and re-invented advertising in a very me-too category, brand managers and the team at Lowe Lintas will now need to unearth enough fresh ideas to keep this momentum going.