Surf Excel- Daag ache hai!

I recently had a conversation with my mother, asking her how the Surf Excel advertisement made her think, I wasn’t surprised to hear how as a mother it triggered a feeling of assurance, a feeling that just like a kid won’t give up on dirt; which is a part of growing up, Surf Excel won’t give upon getting rid of those stains. What surprised me was how greatly an advertisement impacted a mother.

From what started with the iconic lalitaji’s teaching, ‘Surf ki khreedari mein hai samajhdaari’ and later transformed into ‘Surf Excel hai na’, there is no denying that from GenX to Millennial, Surf excel has been deeply embedded in our memory, talk about share of mind, huh?

Amidst some great advertisements, One tagline that transformed the course of the brand –

‘Daag ache hai! ,

Stands strong even after 15 years from its introduction to the audience in 2005.

The Hindustan Unilever brand follows purpose-driven marketing, believing that a brand is driven by a cause and with every advertisement, Surf excel proves how important the brand’s communication of its value proposition is to the success of the brand.

 Have a look for yourself,

The playfulness of two siblings in the puddle of dirty water doesn’t fail to strike with the emotional chord of the consumers and filling the hearts with warmth.

The premium detergent market stands highly competitive with every brand trying to capture the consumer interest through their ‘Clean and Spotless’ proposition, On the other hand, Surf excel instead of portraying itself on the same lines focuses on celebrating stains and enjoying while we are at it. Thus, subtly imprinting in our minds how easy it is to get rid of stains with Surf Excel.

Keeping the thought of Dirt is good intact in the minds of the audience; Surf Excel took a step forward with its take on finding strength in failures through its tagline ‘Har ko harao’. It stands as another remarkable advertisement by the brand.

With time Surf Excel strengthened the strong brand proposition of ‘Daag Acche Hain’ by playing with trending issues.

The brand ran a campaign ‘Agar ungli pe daag lagne se achhi sarkar banti hai, to daag achhe hain’. Daag here stands as a metaphor to the ink mark after voting and thus urging the audience to vote. Another campaign based on social trending issue was brand’s take on ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’, where young kids joined hands to keep India and their surroundings clean

In one of its recent advertisements, the brand put together a controversial issue with a heartwarming Holi advertisement promoting Hindu-Muslim peace and provoking the thought of oneness and harmony. 

The brand faced major backlash on social media. Twitter was filled with tweets slamming the ad with the hashtag #boycottSurfExcel but some loyal customers didn’t fail to come in support of the brand.

This brings us to the thought that how peace and harmony in society bring offense to people, but that’s a whole other conversation.

Anyway, backlash and negative publicity just made the advertisement reach more people than imaginable.

Despite the major controversy, there stands no doubt on the quality of ads by Surf Excel and its ability to cater to human emotions and trigger indirect action.

Currently, Surf excel doesn’t stand on the top of the podium in terms of market share but this just clearly tells that it’s not always about market share and profits.

As long as a brand can connect with consumers on an emotional level and get trapped in their subconscious, it will stay in the market for a long haul.