Iconic Ads: Strepsils – The MGM Lion Meow!

1970’s. Back to the Boots Company but a different brand – Strepsils. And with Clarion

The difficult Anil Kapoor was the client, and he used to grind agencies to death.

Agencies thought that he was a bully who had his way. He would provoke the agencies till they gave up and changed the creative. In reality, he was testing the conviction which the agencies had when they presented their creatives.

The presentation was for a film. The idea was to show the MGM lion with a sore throat, unable to roar. It was to mew like a cat and once it had Strepsils it would roar as the original MGM lion would.

A great film idea but Anil Kapoor was being his usual self. However, Prahlad Kakkar was adamant and decided to enact the entire adv in front of him. He started with a meow meow (like a cat); had a Strepsil tablet, and then roared out loud imitating a lion.

Anil could not control himself,  he started to laugh and walked out of the room so as to not show anyone he was laughing. He came back with a straight face and said ‘make the film”

Famous animator Ram Mohan did the animation & the TVC was a huge success. 

Today, after more than 30 years later, people still remember the MGM lion meowing instead of roaring with a sore throat. All it took was one Strepsil to bring the roar back. This classic ensured high brand recall even now.