Onida's devil to retire, brand to be relaunched
09 Sep 2009
Onida's attention-grabbing devil is being put to pasture after 26 years. After more than two decades, Onida the electronics and home appliances maker has decided to drop the Devil and relaunch its brand. Noted ad veteran Prasoon Joshi and his team are helping the company in the brand re-birth process.
This is not the first time the devil is being retired. Once discontinued in 1998, it was brought back by the company in 2004.
The devil was originally created by Gopi Kukde of Avenues in 1982. The first devil was acted out by model coordinator David Whitbread who played devil for 14 years.
After its resurrection, well known model Ashish Chaudhary has been seen in the garb of a softer, gentler devil since 2005.
A new ad campaign is being launched by September-end. The Onida account also has seen frequent change of hands. From Advertising Avenues, it moved to Ogilvy, then to Rediffusion and now, McCann Erickson handles the creative duties for the brand.
The devil and the tagline were conceptualised by Advertising Avenues, with Gopi Kukde handling art and Ashok Roy and Goutam Rakshit the copy and marketing, respectively.