Canva's new ads bring back historical figures to solve modern-day problems

As an extension to their first campaign in India 'Dil se, design tak', Canva is back with a quirky new series of 12 short films titled 'Hysterical Historical Cafe.' Each of these 30 to 45-second ads offers a humorous twist, placing famous historical figures in modern-day scenarios, where Canva's tools come to the rescue.

Take the ad 'On the Fly with the Right Brothers,' for instance. The Wright Brothers, in the midst of their pioneering aviation work, suddenly find themselves swamped with the pressure of creating a presentation. Enter Canva's Magic Design, turning their chaos into a sleek and stress-free presentation, leaving the brothers free to focus on, well, not crashing.

Then there’s 'Misadventure Capitalists,' where Christopher Columbus and his crew are in a bind. They’ve got to convince King Ferdinand that they’re still on their grand adventure to find India. How do they manage it? By using Canva's Magic Eraser to cleverly remove all the non-Indian elements from their selfies. It’s a fun and cheeky nod to history, with a little Canva magic thrown in.

Conceptualized by Only Much Louder (OML), these 12 short ads cleverly demonstrate how Canva’s tools make visual content creation accessible to everyone, regardless of their design expertise.

“We’re thrilled to introduce the ‘Hysterical Historical Café’, a set of quick-witted ad-films that perfectly encapsulate Canva’s commitment to simplifying visual communication and making it more accessible,” said Chandrika Deb, Growth and Marketing Lead for Canva India in a press release. 

“By blending humour with practicality, our goal is to highlight Canva’s many use cases as a versatile visual communications platform empowering everyone from individuals to small and large enterprises in India to unleash their creativity. As a part of our ‘Dil Se, Design Tak’ campaign, we aim to connect with over 100 million active internet users and build deeper resonance for Canva in the Indian market.”

“Working on Canva has been a wild creative ride for all of us at Only Much Louder. Our unique ‘Brands As Creators’ framework is all about turning brands into storytellers who can truly entertain in order to connect with audiences. With a sharp comedy writer like Manaswi Mohata on board, we knew we could push the envelope. When we set out to show how Canva makes design accessible to everyone, we figured, why limit "everyone" to just us, everyday humans? Why not dinosaurs, mammoths, queens, Nobel Prize winners, and even our prehistoric ancestors? The fun was in exaggerating not just with words, but with over-the-top setups. Honestly, we couldn’t have pulled it off without the trust and conviction of our incredible partners at Canva who didn’t just tolerate our craziness, but encouraged us to go even wilder!" said Manav Parekh, Senior Vice President & Executive Creative Director, Only Much Louder said in a press release.