A fresh campaign for a 'New & Fresher' Center Fresh

Introduced in 1994, Center Fresh is the first ever liquid filled chewing gum launched in India by the confectionery giant Perfetti Van Melle (PVM).  Intrinsically standing for freshness the brand is the largest selling gum brand in the country. The brand also enjoys enormous equity with its much loved, renowned and rib-tickling advertising campaigns. Its quest for delivering the best mint gum experience has led to the launch of an even fresher Center Fresh – the same great taste, now with a higher level of cooling.

To highlight this innovation and further strengthen ‘freshness’ credentials for the brand, PVM and Ogilvy & Mather have together developed a new campaign for the brand that communicates the product improvement in an interesting and unique manner.  The new campaign with a new tag line ‘Chali hawa mastani’ communicates the product benefit of ‘freshness and coolness’ and will go on air from 24th October.

The story is set-up at a shooting scene for a film, where a crowd has gathered to watch the shooting. A young guy is there to see his favourite actress. At the shoot the actress throws a tantrum as it’s too hot, and the film crew get searching for a fan. Our protagonist uses the situation to his benefit to get close to the actress by presenting himself as a ‘fan’ (a dual play on the word ‘Fan’) – thanks to his cool fresh breath post chewing Center fresh he poses as a pedestal fan, blows fresh cool air and mesmerizes the actress and wins her attention.

“It’s a big leap. Devising a new brand strategy for Center Fresh means an opportunity to do something completely different. The task was to create eye-grabbing communication that talks of the core product benefit of fresh breath. The new commercial does this very well” says Anurag Agnihotri, ECD, Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai.

Commenting on the new campaign, Arun Sharma, Controller Marketing, Perfetti Van Melle India says “Center Fresh is the market leader in the Gums category in India. Over the last 2 decades we have built this brand on the back of product innovations and iconic advertising campaigns. With a strong equity and loyal consumer base, the brand is well entrenched in the Indian consumer’s mind. Since the brand is intrinsically synonymous with freshness, our task was clear - establish ‘freshness’ credentials for the brand in a more concrete manner & go beyond ‘taste’ as the core positioning platform. Aligned with this objective is the brand’s new positioning with ‘freshness’ at the core and consequently the new communication campaign”.