British Airways bets on okra, but humble bhendi will win

"Beware: this video made a couple of people in our office shed a tear or two. British Airways takes an emotional stance in this video and shows us that home is where the heart is. British Airways brings together a mom and her son who live in the opposite ends of the earth and have not seen each other in over 5 years. This video, a great effort by British Airways, received close to 1,60,000 in period of 2 days," says Unmetric, who tracks viral videos as part of their offerings. Thanks, Unmetric, for the data.

By the way, the figure, as this is being written, has crossed 6,43,000 views.

The video is the latest in a new breed of 'non-ads' we are seeing lately. The plug is covert, not overt. There is a distinct effort to make-my-logo-smaller, not bigger.vig.

The story. A Mumbai-based mother is tricked (with good intentions) that if she cooked her son's favourite meal, British Airways would transport it, free of cost, to her son thousands of miles away.

[caption id="attachment_1019409" align="alignleft" width="380"] Unmetric data graph[/caption]

The video captures her explaining why she is cooking what she is cooking, what memories the choice of dishes bring to her, how she expects her son to react to the sight of the tiffin carrier (into which she packs the food) and to the food in it when her son opens it. As she finishes packing the meal, in walks her son.

More from Brands

Lovely.

There's one big problem that we have with the film - the use of the word 'okra' for 'bhendi'. I cannot imagine a single Indian housewife, especially one who has so obviously lived in India all her life, using the word. If she said 'lady's finger' it would have still have been okay, but okra is a complete no-no.

The word probably came into the non-script thanks to a producer who saw the 'global' possibilities in the viral, who saw that the film could appeal to audiences in countries where bhendi was never bhendi, not even lady's finger, but okra.

It's small, but it's this little bit in the film that jars - the rest of the film is so eminently likeable.

The cast is perfect. The housewife looks like the woman next door, the son looks like the boy you bump into at a bus stop. The kitchen looks like your aunt's, not one from Inside Outside or Good Housekeeping.

Beyond the film, it's the intro to the YouTube link that sucks.

You only get one family: so come #visitmum and book your ticket to India today here- http://bit.ly/16sXQKF

At British Airways, we make visiting Mum easier. For almost 40 years, we've dedicated ourselves to reconnecting you with the people who matter, like Ratnesh, a young man from India, who's touchingly reunited with his Mum, after moving away from his home in Mumbai when he was only 17."

Oh dear. After all the subtlety that we see in the film, British Airways now does a crude, in-your-face, sale.

Oh, wait a bit. Now I get why they said 'okra'. "Book your ticket to India today," they say; so British Airways is talking to those in okra country, not to those in bhendi country.

I'm going to ask Unmetric to measure the RoI on this one and figure out how much of the YouTube views came from bhendi country and how much from okra.

I'll bet my shirt on bhendi to win by 10 to 1.

To see the Storyboard E-paper, click here- http://www.firstpost.com/download-epapers.html