Even though you might be engrossed in conversation while downing sumptuous servings of south Indian goodness which, naturally, includes coffee, you simply cannot fail to notice the quirky red-and-yellow posters at Adigas. One of them says you can get James Bonda here.
You read that right. The witty posters at Vasudev Adigas, a popular eatery chain in Bengaluru, are a delight by themselves. The posters cleverly fuse the names of south Indian dishes with iconic dialogues from classic Hollywood and Bollywood films, leaving you with not just the contentment of a full stomach but also of a sense of humour served well.
The campaign, says Adigas’ head of marketing and sales Atin Kumar, was meant to grab eyeballs, of not just your regular dosa loving joe, but also your Sholay watching, bullet-riding Clint Eastwood fan base as well. “We have a diverse group of people coming in; the new, the young, and not just the local.”
Designed by Fisheye Creative Solutions, the campaign was rolled out three years ago.
You can see a rather agitated Gabbar Singh glaring at you from the opposite wall, calling out with an, “Arre Oh, Sambhar”, as you slurp the last of it. Among the other catchy one liners, you have a James Bond(a) who doesn’t compromise on criminals or crispy finger food alongside The Good, The Bad and The Idly that attempts to preserve the treasure of South Indian cuisine.
Its designer and vice president at Fisheye Vinoo Krishnan says, the poster campaign started off as a little play at work and went on to become an offshoot of the wider branding campaign that worked towards creating a unique identity for the franchise.
Krishnan says, “As there are other restaurants going with the same name, various branding campaigns were carried out, including the construction of the logo to distinguish the chain of Vasudev Adiga’s from those of the other restaurants and food joints.”
Asked why a more local flavor in cinema wasn’t employed, Krishnan said that his team did create caricatures of some Kannada film stars, but members of some fan clubs objected to the word play and subsequently the posters were taken down and eventually binned. He said that a possible comic on Rajkumar would result in a flustered fan base, hot on their heels. “So, we stuck to a more neutral choice in films,” he says.