Usha Sewing Machines

I was happy to see that one of my favourite TV commercials is once again on air; it is the ad for Usha sewing machines. This commercial makes use of live action as well as stop-motion animation very beautifully. Live action shooting is about shooting action using a movie camera and in case of stop-motion animation a still camera is used to capture movement frame by frame. In stop-motion animation a huge number of pictures need to be shot.

The story of the Usha sewing machine commercial is quite simple; a family has just moved into a new house, the husband receives a phone call and leaves for work immediately leaving his wife to do the unpacking and
putting the house in order. The young wife removes her Usha Janome sewing machine from a packing case and begins working on it. She uses Usha Janome to make various art works to beautify the house; in fact she transforms the house completely to the utter surprise of her husband who returns home in the evening.

What I observed in the commercial was that there was no voice-over or dialogue extolling the product benefits except for the husband saying “bye” in the beginning and “Yeh apna hi ghar hai na?”at the end, and the child saying “papa!” at the end of the commercial. The live action and the stop-motion portions worked seamlessly together.

Using a sewing machine at home, in the modern times, especially for urban young women may perhaps be considered old fashioned and cumbersome; sewing machines are known to be heavy. The commercial has been able to correct this perception; the message very clearly conveys that times have changed; we now have Usha Janome, a sewing machine which is ideally suited to the needs of the modern urban young housewife. The machine is lightweight, portable and easy to use; these facts are demonstrated in the commercial by showing the young wife easily removing it from the packing case and putting it to use. The commercial also attempts to expand the use of the product by showing that the urban young housewife can use it to give expression to her artistic talents. Ultimately Usha Janome brings joy to the entire family.

When I watch this commercial I cannot help wondering whether Usha sewing machines really need any advertising at all, after all Usha is a reputed brand and has only one competitor – Singer at the national level; I cannot think of any other competitor. However it is quite possible that competition at the local level from local brands may be a real threat. The objective of the campaign I think is two pronged, one, fight competition with a superior product and two, attract new users who wish to use it artistically.

The commercial is a pleasure to watch thanks to the creative use of stop-motion animation which really makes it stand out. To know more about how the commercial was made please visit http://www.cgtantra.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=401&Itemid=67