ITC Savlon has rolled out a film, titled ‘We Love Antibiotics’, as part of its Savlon Swasth India Mission, highlighting the issue of antibiotic misuse in India

The film is conceptualised by Ogilvy. Featuring a catchy musical, the ad takes a satirical look at India's casual relationship with prescription medication, particularly antibiotics. Through humour, music and exaggerated everyday situations, it showcases how antibiotics are often treated like household snacks or everyday sweets, popped for the slightest discomfort - from a common cold and headache to heat-related uneasiness and stomach aches. The film cleverly exposes the culture of casual self-medication, where antibiotic strips are freely passed around within families, with advice coming from everyone except qualified medical professionals.

What we think about it: The film takes on a serious public health concern through the entertaining lens of humour, sarcasm and music. Rather than adopting a conventional, preachy public health message, it uses humour to expose the absurdity of self-medication and the casual consumption of antibiotics. The everyday references make the message relatable, while the musical treatment gives the film an entertaining edge.

The film released on 9 November.

CREDITS:

Team ITC Savlon: Sameer Satpathy, Sanjay Srinivas, Varun Kaushik, Payal Mehra 
Creative agency: Ogilvy
Group CCOs, India: Kainaz Karmakar, Harshad Rajadhyaksha, Sukesh Nayak
CEO, WPP Creative India and chairperson, Ogilvy India: Hephzibah Pathak
Group CEO, Ogilvy India: Rajesh VR
President and head of office (Mumbai and Kolkata): Hirol Gandhi
Deputy CSO, India: Ganapathy Balagopalan
Creative team: Fritz Gonsalves, Jayesh Raut, Saumya Aggarwal, Saurabh Pawar
Account management team: Roshni Mohan Parameswaran, Rohit Shetty, Sneh Singh, Vidhi Agarwal 
Brand planning team: Nirav Parekh, Nadia Miranda, Prayant C.
Production House: Studio Zuno
Director: Harshhik S Suraiya 
Producer: Milin Shah 
Music: Subhajit Mukherjee 
Lyrics: Saumya Aggarwal and Akshat Trivedi
DOP: Linesh Desai