Hico Ice Cream TVC: What is fake, what is real?

In everyday life what we assume to be realities may just be appearances. In philosophy, there has been a long debate as to the nature of reality itself. For Francis Herbert Bradley appearances always fail to project the ultimate reality. If you dig deeper into what is appearance and what is reality and study philosophers from Hegel to Bertrand Russell you will realize that the world around us is not as obvious as we take it to be. The contemplation on these philosophical ideas was triggered by a recent TVC of Hico Ice Cream. The advert is built on the idea of what is fake (appearance) and what is real.

Hico Ice Cream TVC takes 56 seconds to get a simple message across that their products are made with real dairy cream. Directed by Abrar Naeem, the storyline highlights the distinction between a fake thing and a real one. The USP (Unique Selling Point) of Hico Ice Cream is seamlessly connected with the big idea, things are not what they appear to be. There are too many ads with a husband-wife storyline. To make the ad more interesting and attention-grabbing, Hico could have used the power of a celebrity couple.

In the early 1990s Ice Cream market in terms of its volume was not as big as it is now. There were few brands, now non-existent or lost into oblivion, like Polka, Yummy, Hico Ice Cream, etc. Since the advent of deep-freezer and Walls Ice Cream, nothing remained the same. The majority of the Ice Cream manufacturers, due to reluctance to adopt new marketing strategies, caved in. Heavy media spending and innovative marketing techniques made Walls King in the category. The unchallenged reign of Walls was cut short by FrieslandCampina Engro’s Omore Ice Cream through aggressive communication and marketing strategy. If Hico is ambitious to get a bigger market share, apart from improving its sales and distribution network the brand will have to focus on its marketing and communication strategy backed by heavy media spending.     

It is also important to educate the consumers about the nature of the content they consume. Most people still think that Blue Band margarine is a dairy product. Take tea whiteners, for example, they were forced to remove the words like ‘milk’ and ‘dairy’ from their packaging and other communication materials. It is the responsibility of not only brands but also the relevant food departments to educate the consumers in this regard.  

Hico Ice Cream has made a very relevant campaign at a time when people have become diet conscious. COVID has forced us to reevaluate our health and hygiene habits. It is highly important to have knowledge of what is real and what is not. It takes an open mind to be able to distinguish exactly that.