BookMyShow Children's Day campaign titled 'Sunday Movie Day' narrates a thought-provoking story that urges parents to love their children irrespective of who they love.
The BookMyShow Children's Day campaign is a one-minute video titled ‘Sunday Movie Day’ which not only had the desire to bring back childhood memories but also send out a provocative message.
Conceptualized and executed with BBH India, the film addresses the stigma that many Indian parents continue to face regarding the sexual orientation of their children. In consonance with the recent Section 377 verdict, it strikes an emotional chord and urges parents to love their children for who they are, regardless of who they love.
Campaign objective
BookMyShow believes that entertainment connects us all. Pursuant to the recent historic verdict of decriminalization of Section 377, the brand wanted to put across its perspective.
“This film is our attempt in reaching out to all parents and asking them to accept their children for who they are,” adds Marzdi Kalianiwala, SVP- Marketing and Business Intelligence, BookMyShow.
About the film
The film starts with a man remembering his childhood days and especially the usual Sunday morning which happened to be the ultimate movie watching day back home. As he narrates the story with joy, he shares that as time passed by he grew apart from his parents because he found his love interest in the same gender as his.
Supreme Court decriminalized Section 377 (an Indian penal code which criminalized homosexual activities) and it was a moment of pride for the whole country. The young adult got his Sunday movie day back along with his parents.
In the light of the historic Supreme Court judgment on section 377, BookMyShow and BBH chose to play out a story of love and acceptance against the backdrop of the magic of the movies. Russell Barrett, Chief Creative Officer & Managing Partner, BBH India puts it down as, “We were keen to cast a real couple in the lead roles for so many reasons, the most important being, it was the right thing to do. We hope to do much more going forward.”
While the film on Youtube has raked in 2.6 million views, the Facebook video has garnered 3 Million views on and more than 15K reactions.
It should be noted that when the section got scraped on September 6, every brand latched onto the opportunity to show their support to the verdict with varied campaigns. Book My Show put a wait and watch game to let the noise drop and stand out with this piece of creativity.
Over to our creative experts to see what they feel about the newly released ad.
I think the best thing this film has going for it, is that it lauds the scrapping of 377 after everyone has jumped off the bandwagon! Post the verdict, the ad world witnessed a slew of print ads and posts from brands. Potato chips to mattresses and even tyres, it didn’t matter if your product had zero connection with the verdict, it was 377 dude and it was happening! The opportunism was just sickening.
BookMyShow waited for the reckless proliferation to die down and produced this TVC. A simple talkie that neither engages nor entertains. That makes a brave attempt to produce a ‘twist in the tale’, but winds up being convoluted and confusing. So it took the scrapping of 377 for his parents to accept his sexual preference and bring Sunday movies back to his otherwise dreary, bleak weekends? Seriously? I found the main actor’s performance brave, the brand connect tenuous and the production average. Hopefully a one-off indulgence by the brand manager after being barraged by the Creative Director ‘sir ek release de dena’!
Aditya Mehendale, Creative Manager, Schbang
While the construct of this video was good, it fails to deliver the goods for me on impact which seems too little and comes too late. Advertising today more than ever is centrally about context and timing and while the video was set up to own a particular day, the levers it uses to do that seems like a late acknowledgment of a milestone act for India. One of my favorite communication pieces from this year has been Star Gold's #LoveisLove video which gets all the acclaim for its simplistic yet heartwarming execution but more importantly, it's remarkable timing. "Love your children, no matter who they love" is an extremely powerful thought but one I feel deserved better execution to bring it to life
Tina Garg, CEO & Founder, Pink Lemonade
BookMyShow gives us an excellent example of a brand leveraging a special occasion to spread a meaningful message. In this succinct video, it depicts entertainment as a unifying force, adding just the right amount of build-up and ending with a message that stays with the viewer long after the ad ends. And isn’t that essentially what any kind of advertising aims to do? BookMyShow is clearly a brand that’s evolving and isn’t afraid to take a stand — here’s hoping other companies follow suit!
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