Tiffany's 'Will You?' print ad gets mixed response

Tiffany's: Will You?
Tiffany's recently released a series of print ads titled 'Will you?', where couples asked their significant others to marry them. One of the ads features a same-sex couple, an ad that made waves on social media and generated a lot of buzz.

We got two of our HYCs from last year - Amish Sabharwal, Group Head (copy), Dentsu India and Srijan Shukla, Creative Supervisor, DDB Mudra - to weigh in on one of the print ads from the campaign (pictured). Here's what they thought about it.




Idea

Amish Sabharwal: It's definitely an idea which makes you sit up and take notice for the subject is 'controversial' according to the societal norms. And at the core its burr comes from that very 'controversy'. Take that away and it might be plain jane. Having said that, it's something which should become the norm and an everyday thing.

Srijan Shukla: The idea of the proposal through jewelry is age old but using it for same sex marriages seems to set it in a new and fresh context. But just restricting it to a press ad or a press campaign doesn't do justice to the potential of the idea.

Creative Execution

Amish Sabharwal: It's not a mind blowing execution. It's a very category type of look, copy and feel.

Srijan Shukla: I like the casualness of its execution. Nothing overt, no shouting from the top. The normalcy of the execution conveys the idea of accepting same sex marriages as just another marriage, nicely.

Brand recall and effectiveness

Amish Sabharwal: Tiffany being such a strong brand name, it builds on to it. And the recall will be very high as it builds onto its core proposition and adds to it the attention grabbing subject. The effectiveness would be very difficult to judge. Some might feel offended, some might think of it as insensitive, some might take it as a bold step and some might feel it doesn't do justice to the issue it takes on. Having said all that, it will be effective in terms of grabbing attention but how much of it will tug at the heart strings and ultimately help build brand affinity, might be in question.

Srijan Shukla: The brand connect is strong. Because in popular culture, Tiffany's has had strong associations with proposals and romance. So it's a good marriage of the brand with the idea. I think the communication will have a recall and will resonate with the audience. Also, even if the brand recall is not very high, the affinity towards the brand would surely increase as societies are becoming more accepting of same sex marriages and it's always nice to see any brand taking a step in that direction.

If you had to, how would you do it differently?

Amish Sabharwal: I would like to take the soft edge out of this and make it stand out in substance and copy. It should be hard hitting and something which doesn't leave you cold, once you take away the burr of the subject.

Srijan Shukla: Some brands have already done it interestingly. Droga5's work for Honey Maid was done showcasing same-sex parents and it became a talking point. The response they got and their reply to it was even more interesting. Such approaches are also nice because they open a dialogue within a society, which I think is great.