Pulmonol: Khansna Mana Hai, but why nobody is coughing

Pulmonol is one of the flagship products by CCL, a renowned pharmaceutical company. With over 50 years of experience in the healthcare sector, CCL’s Pulmonol is a household name in Pakistan as it offers products like cough syrups, Lozenges, etc. to help us deal with day to day health and hygiene issues.

Every year when the weather changes, problems like cough, sore throat, and fever happen to most of us. There is nothing to be worried about. But the COVID stricken world of today paints a different picture. No cough or fever can be taken lightly. There could not have been a better time for a brand like Pulmonol to develop a creative campaign for its products.

The brand has developed a couple of TVCs around the idea ‘Khansna Mana Hai’. The first execution of the idea is too obvious to get noticed while the second one is interesting and nicely put together. A bit of violence to begin with, the ad gets the attention of the audience till the end. A Mughal girl, probably a contemporary of Anarkali, is dancing with her fellow performers when she is struck by an arrow.

She dies in the arms of her lover who laments her death. The scene climaxes with the spellbinding performances of the actors. The audience moves to the edge of their seats. The jaw-dropping and the eye-popping moment is interrupted by the coughing of the dead girl. The play is ruined but the ad hits the bull’s eye, Khansna Mana Hai.

As I said earlier that in the current Corona crisis the idea ‘Khansna Mana Hai’ is very relevant, but the fact remains that people are not actually coughing. Despite our grave negligence and stark violations of SOPs COVID has not spread as much as it was initially feared it would. While most of us are carefree regarding the severity of the pandemic, some of us are extremely health conscious. Those who are carefree seem to have defeated the virus with their sheer will-power. Others have done so by working on their health and hygiene and improving their immunity against the disease.  

It remains to be seen how the Pulmonol campaign performs in terms of conversion into sales. The creative and marketing strategy is spot-on. If the media strategy is to be aggressive on all mainstream satellite channels, Pulmonol will definitely get good results.