Shahid Afridi creates a new ‘Era’ at J. Junaid Jamshed
J. Junaid Jamshed has launched The Era Pour Homme – 10 Shahid Afridi, a product for its J. Fragrance category. Afridi becomes the second legendary cricketer after Wasim Akram to have a product named after him by J. Junaid Jamshed.
Freedom of the soul, strength, determination and the spirit of hard work are the highlighting product attributes. ‘The Era’ aims to represent the essence of a gentleman through the star power of Boom Boom.
With the freshness of bergamot, sweetness of coconut and the sensational trail of vanilla, sandalwood, amber and musk, the perfume is certainly a breath of fresh air in the market.
The launch accompanies a thematic TVC campaign. The TVC seems a little out of place as the half cooked idea leads you nowhere. It starts with Afridi in action as if he is a secret service agent. Shattering some glasses in 007-style he ends up stealing ‘The Era’, which he himself was supposed to receive at a ceremony. In the end when the presenters on stage finds the award to be missing Afridi takes it out of his breast pocket and shows it off triumphantly.
The entire TVC is utterly meaningless. The voiceover sounds immature to begin with. As the name of the product suggests, the advert should have shed some light on the successful era of Afridi as a sportsman rather than portraying him as someone between a burglar and a spy.
J. could have done better. Though the brand has little experience in doing mainstream advertising especially the TVCs yet they could have worked closely with their creative agency to devise a solid marketing strategy in order to build a strong creative.
Very few cricketers become stars and fewer reach the status of a celebrity. Shahid Afridi is a star who reached the rank of a celebrity during his career as a player. The launch of ‘The Era of Shahid Afridi’ is an acknowledgement of his high stature.
