La Lara La La… Liril

“The waterfall was Indian advertising’s watershed, when former Air-India hostess Karen Lunel appeared in a green two-piece bikini for Liril. The first in a series that later also brought us Preity Zinta, Liril gave Indian advertising the sex appeal of the semi-clad feminine form, which it has used ever since to sell aftershaves, cars, clothing and condoms…” I wrote in an article for Tehelka.

If what I know is right, this was one of the earliest colour ads to be aired on Indian television (the brand – Liril – was launched in 1975) and colour entered Indian living rooms courtesy the 1982 Asian Games.

For Alyque Padamsee, the man then at the helm of Lintas, the agency behind the landmark ad, “more than the freshness that comes from its features, Liril promised 20 minutes of freedom to the Indian housewife who gets pulled in different directions for the rest of the time.”

For those who came in late (to planet Earth) here is the revolutionary Liril ad:

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The ad was shot in Pambar Falls in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, which is now more popularly known as ‘Liril Falls’ thanks to the ad.

Karen Lunel was the first Liril girl. Those who followed her include Aneesha Dalal, Pooja Batra, Anjali Jathar, Hrishita Bhat, Tara Sharma, Ruchi Malhotra, Deepika Padukone, Divya Palat and of course Preity Zinta.

I had posted some Liril print ads here.

An interesting fact that I never realised before – the name is a palindrome.

So catchy is the La lara la la… tune, composed by Vanraj Bhatia, that I couldn’t help but make a ringtone out of it. You can preview and download the MP3 ringtone from below:

Download [MP3 116 KB 00:00:09 96kbps Stereo 44 kHz]
Right click and Save Link As/Save Target As

And to wrap this post, here are some image grabs:

Snapshot Slideshow

Click on image for original jpegs