Iconic Ads: Gold Spot – The Zing Thing

Rekha and Gold Spot

Gold Spot had trysts with Rekha as an endorser, but it was known as a kids brand. It had kiddie collectables and other fun stuff which worked as good engagement opportunities to reinforce it.

It had also had Usha Uthup sang “Livva little hot, Sippa Gold Spot” written by Kersy Katrak at the famous agency MCM after he had seen the rushes with Rekha. It was directed by Shyam Benegal and shot by Govind Nihalani, assisted by Prahlad Kakkar

Bringing the Zing

Gold Spot was losing business to Rasna. Gold Spot needed to reposition itself in the mid-80s. It also wanted to capture the youth market especially teenagers. They went to Rediffusion to detach from everything that identified them as a children’s brand. And while many adults like a Gold Spot, they were not the intended audience.

Gold Spot was a sweet, tangy, very orangey drink that gave a tingle at the end. Two or three groups worked on creatives while Pandey was in charge. They made the decision to air many advertisements at once and came up with six ideas. One of the teams’ creative group heads, Surendra Rao, was responsible for both the advertisements’ lyrical scripts and the slogan, “The Zing Thing.”

Pandey then composed the Hindi lyrics. The most difficult part of working was giving the commonly spoken language’s equivalent of the theme phrase “The Zing Thing.” “Deewano Ka Mazaa” was the new Hindi phrase

Along with the tagline, Prahlad Kakkar, Louis Banks and the Rediffusion team set out to create “The Grease movie” like commercials – stylish, showing young, fashionable young men and women jiving, skating, driving etc to some very Western-influenced peppy music. Doing things with an ‘I don’t care’ spirit.

The simple message in the jingle was: He is crazy about me, and she is crazy about me, and both are as crazy as they are for Gold Spot. The Zing Thing and the background score are meant to convey: “The taste is so awesome, yet so familiar, that it brought out the best and the worst in you.”

Gold Spot became the most popular “uncola” of its time.

Doordarshan, India’s primary television network, aired the adverts in both Hindi and English. All of them were filmed simultaneously, however they were released one after another every week. This was done because Rediffusion intended to gauge how people reacted to the advertisements before making any further decisions. After the first results were satisfactory, they aired the remaining advertisements.

Thanks to the television commercials that made it the “for me” brand among youngsters in the country.

This effervescent drink is said to be the inspiration for the Los Angeles-based band Goldspot. Gold Spot was highly popular in India at the time, according to one of the interviews with Siddhartha Khosla (the band’s main member).