Ad film or action blockbuster? Agent Ching makes you think

What if it opened like a big blockbuster action movie in a theatre, with disclaimers, opening credits and big names on its poster?

Agent Ching Attacks, an 8 minute 45 second ad film, has all the ingredients of a regular single-screen blockbuster.

The ‘film’ opens in a bus in the snowy mountains, carrying soldiers discussing the delicious food their unit cook prepares. As the heavy hitting names flash on screen—Atlee, Ranveer Singh, Bobby Deol—the soldiers are kidnapped and the action moves to a ‘Mission Command Room’ in Ladakh, where a clutch of spy-types discuss who could be behind it all.

It’s all very reminiscent of some of the biggest post-pandemic Hindi hits such as Pathan, Jawan and War, but the only twist is this – the enemy isn’t some rogue Indian spy or a foreign country opposed to India’s very existence. Instead, it is ‘Professor White Noise’, who invents a magic drug named Shape Zero, that supposedly kills people’s taste buds and later their appetite altogether, leaving them hopelessly addicted (sounds familiar?). The only thing that can break the curse is food that is irresistible to taste—and that is where Ching’s Secret plugs in its range of chutneys and condiments.

We loved the oblique reference to new anti-obesity drugs and the idea that people may be forgetting the joy of eating good food in the pursuit of health. And of course, when will we ever see Bobby Deol in a villainous avatar defeated by a samosa doused in schezwan chutney?

Ching’s Secret released this ad last week and it is already a big hit. Last checked, it had over 32 million views on YouTube and 85 million on Instagram. Some reports suggest the film cost ₹150 crore to make, although Mint could not independently verify this claim.

This isn’t the first time that Ching’s Secret, acquired by Tata Consumer last year, has released a big-bang ad campaign featuring big Bollywood names. In 2016, Rohit Shetty, another action director, had directed a roughly five-minute film for the brand, starring Ranveer Singh and Tamannaah Bhatia, in a Mad Max: Fury Road-style post-apocalyptic setting. This ad film had big names associated with it too, including writer-director Milap Zaveri and music composers Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.

Why would a brand spend to make a bite-sized version of a feature length Bollywood film, that too on a similar budget? Marketers baulk at the idea of fancy brand marketing campaigns, largely because it is hard to measure the outcome of all that money. However, when nearly everything on the internet is a forgettable ad, a splashy movie like this will get people talking about your brand longer than the most measurable ad campaign.