Iconic Ads: Binnie’s – Humko Binnie’s Mangta

Binnie’s Chips called for a pitch.

Sonal Dabral, who was in Mudra then, worked with the team to create a campaign that sounded cool. The tagline read, ‘Looking for fun? Binnie’s the one!’
Since the target was teens, the campaign was relevant but typical for teens in guitars and some chips thrown in.

Mudra Delhi was small then and hunting for new clients.

They decided to test the campaign among a group of teenagers at Lajpat Nagar

Most of the teens invited liked the line. But there was a kid who had tagged along with his elder brother. The kid was around 7 years old, but he had an attitude. He liked the line too. When asked if his brother bought him chips, he replied (with a lot of attitude) that he purchased them himself. He pointed to whatever he wanted and said, ‘I want that’ in a mix of Hindi and Punjabi.

It struck Sonal then that kids knew what they wanted and demanded it, and that’s when ‘Humko Binnie’s Mangta’ happened.

At that time, most advertising had a strong English feel. And the Hindi was grammatically correct and never colloquial, more often than not translated from the original English.

The song Julie Julie from the Mithun Chakraborty starrer Jeete Hain Shaan Se was on everyone’s lips. A colleague of Sonal used to hum the song Julie Julie, Johnny ka Dil Tujhe Aaya Julie. Taking inspiration from this, Sonal wrote ‘Binnie’s Binnie’s, Naya Naya ye chips Binnie’s. Iski Hai Har Baat Nayi, Yehi Toh Meri Jaan hai Jaan hai… Humko Binnie’s Mangta’.For the pitch, a scratch was recorded and a film was made from Grease with Travolta dancing to ‘Humko Binnie’s Mangta’.

Since Sonal was the art director, he decided to bring the boy’s attitude to hoardings and print too. He created a bold typeface to resonate with a bold attitude. All the press and hoardings had a big Humko Binnie’s Mangta’ and a pack. Nothing else! The attitude was enough to convey the message.

In a sense, the tagline helped kickstart the use of colloquial Hindi in advertising (Hinglish was not coined then).

Though the client loved the idea, he checked the colloquial lines through his children and his friends, and they loved it.

Needless to say, Mudra won the account.

The campaign was successful, as the focus was on the target audience in a language spoken by them, which was fresh and disruptive. Plus a popular song with customized lyrics was used to connect the youth.