Manmeet Sabharwal's Blog

A Tribute to The Onida Devil – RIP !

Posted by TMSBee on September - 6 - 2009

Revamps and Relaunches have become order of the day.Every company is talking or thinking about them.They are either changing the logos as Videocon did or renaming the old brands to new ones as Maruti did with Zen(renamed Zen to Estilo and put Brand Zen to sleep). Few days back Liril was also revamped to Liril 2000 and the old campaign of Liril(la la la with liril girl) is no more.

Now i heard that even Onida is doing away with the famous Devil.

According to Livemint.com,Onida is saying Goodbye to its famous Devil due to changing consumer tastes.Onida was always recognized by the devil.The face of devil kept on changing over the years but it remained the face of the brand Onida.

The company’s ‘devil’ ad campaign, whose tagline was ‘neighbour’s envy, owner’s pride’, was a rage at one point in time, but the multinational feels it has outlived its objective due to change in taste and financial capability of the consumer.

I agree owning a TV today is neither neighbour’s envy nor owner’s pride but the point always was that Onida TV is so good thats why its a thing of envy and pride.

So Onida is not completely justified in removing this tagline.And what about the Devil ?

Devil could have been retained with new positioning,new ad,new model.They have to really come up with a super campaign if they are putting Devil to sleep.In 1998 also a similar step was taken by Onida but Devil returned in 2004.

This time I think Devil is gone.

Devil deserves a tribute.

“The Devil was originally created by Mr gopi Kukde of Avenues in 1982. It was a welcome break from the boring TV industry. If I remember correctly, Onida was the first brand to advertise in Television, ie TVC about TV in TV.The first devil was acted out by David Whitbread who was a model coordinator. he played devil for 14 years” (courtesy:marketingpractice.blogspot.com)

The three different models playing Onida Devil.(David Whitebread,Rajiv Khera,Ashish Choudhary in Pics resp.)

Whole of India would miss the Devil.

I hope Onida comes out with a superb campaign which can justify the Devil’s departure.Devil’s Soul would not rest in peace till Onida shakes the world with a campaign that matches the heights attained by the ‘DEVIL’.

RIP Onida Devil !

What Say ?

6 Responses so far.

  1. Tribute to The Onida Devil -RIP !…

    Now i heard that even Onida is doing away with the famous Devil.According to Livemint.com,Onida is saying Goodbye to its famous Devil due to changing consumer tastes.Onida was always recognized by the devil.The face of devil kept on changing over the y…

  2. pooja says:

    u first heard it at manmeet’s blog.. atleast i did…
    livemint is the source for manmeet.. but ecotimes has the article today….

  3. Richa says:

    Onida truly became famous because of the devil advertisement. A classic example of AIDA. Manmmeet captured it very well. Totally agree when he said that the tag line ‘neighbour’s envy owner’s pride’ aint justifiable any longer (unless of course it was a plasma a few years back, but now owning even that’s not a matter of pride !!)My God, these days being exclusive is such a rarity. But that’s where innovation comes to the rescue of the marketing people.. let’s see how Onida does it this time. Hope Manmeet will keep us posted on this :)

  4. Manmeet says:

    on afaqs.com

    When contacted, Kukde expresses his disappointment with the development.

    “I disagree with Onida. Owning the best will still be an object of envy. Every Tom, Dick and Harry now owns a TV set, but owning the best set is still a big deal. Why does a person show off a Nike or a Ferrari? It is unfortunate because a good insight has been lost,” Kukde says.

    A nostalgic Kukde adds that in the market then, brands were talking technicalities that people could make little sense of. Onida, in collaboration with JVC, brought a TV set that was actually being sold in Japan and was the best technology at that time.

    “We thought that with ‘envy’, we could reach out to the emotions of people. We wanted the consumer to feel that this is something he should own that would invoke jealousy in the envious neighbour next door. That is how envy was born. The Devil added the third dimension to the idea,” says Kukde.

    On the choice of Whitbread, he says, “We did not want the Devil to be grotesque but cute and lovable – someone people could take home with them. David had an unusual face and laughter, and added to the madness.”

  5. [...] from: A Tribute to The Onida Devil – RIP ! | Manmeet Sabharwal's Weblog Share and [...]

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