"Vodafone BlackBerry plans' latest campaign too targets young"

Remember when Kevin, Brian, Howie, A.J. and Nick laid bare their souls as they sang, in torrential rain, and pleaded with their tormentors to quit playing games with their poor little breakable hearts? 

Now, now, come on, denials are hopeless. Surely some of us remember the age, if not the

crooners, of boy bands, and not the Beatles variety. Well, guess what? They are back, not the Backstreet laddies (god forbid). This, a comeback of sorts, is the second album from the BlackBerry Boys, distant cousins of the Caucasian boy band. 

Although they don't share physical attributes, they do indeed have more important qualities in common. The band of disheartened boys (grown men in suits and shiny shoes really) sing a lonely ballad about the invasion of newer, younger and trendier users of what used to be considered the "phone for suits", in a 60 second spot for telecom brand Vodafone. 

Of course the musical number has the mandatory sprinkling of "Oooooooooh Oooh's" and "Aaaaaaah Aaaah's" and, lest we forget, "Oh Yeah's" squeezed in to the lyrics. Their mood matches the colour of their attire, black and blue. The heartbreak began with teasers, short c o m m e r c i a l s heralding their return; it included a behind the scenes look at the boys prepping for their second outing, their studio sessions, dance lessons and a quick walk across Abbey Road. 

Based on the very same consumer insight as the first campaign for Vodafone's BlackBerry user-plans, this one too is targeted at the armies of young (and some slightly older) BlackBerry users who have taken to the phone and its messenger service as ducks to water. 

Most of us would be able to recall the catchy jingle the fab-five, who reckon they are the original BlackBerry Boys, sang in 2010. (A Mexican telecommunications company even made a version of the Vodafone India commercial for its own market.) 

Although the boys didn't break any records, or win a Grammy, the campaign did rather well and went on to become one of the best Indian commercials of 2010. According to Anuradha Aggarwal, senior vice president - brand, consumer insights and communications, Vodafone India; they did, in fact, wonder whether to start afresh or use the equity of the last campaign. 

After all, Vodafone is a master of ad campaign sequels, consider the Zoozoo resurrections at regular intervals. The first Vodafone BlackBerry Boys campaign resonated with the consumer and the challenge with this one was to be as, if not more, successful than the first. So justice done or denied? 

Alas, it seems, according to some, the best part of the campaign is not the main commercial itself, but rather, the teaser segment. So does this campaign from Vodafone share the fate of Volkswagen's 'The Dog Strikes Back' (the American Superbowl ad sequel to VW's celebrated campaign 'The Force')? 'Bark Side' (which had a choir of dogs barking the Imperial March tune), is the rather intriguing teaser the VW commercial it preceded could hardly match.