‘Bole mere lips...I love Uncle Chipps’: How a US presidential election speech inspired the iconic Indian jingle

Nostalgia resurfaced in June, after a span of close to three decades. Uncle Chipps and music maestro of ‘Rasode mein kaun tha’ fame Yashraj Mukhate collaborated to recreate ‘Bole Mere Lips … I love Uncle Chipps.’ The video amassed 168K views on social media within an hour of its launch.

On the reintroduction of the jingle, Saumya Rathor, category lead – Potato Chips, PepsiCo India, said, “The launch of the new Uncle Chipps jingle is an exciting moment for us all. A hit since the 90s, this jingle continues to resonate deeply even today with a massive fan following that spans across celebrities, consumers, and beyond. The revival of ‘Bole Mere Lips, I Love Uncle Chipps’, is our way of celebrating the enduring universal love for the brand and the fandom that surrounds these delicious, crinkled potato chips. Yashraj Mukhate has exceptionally infused his musical prowess and unique style to create a rendition that captures the spirit of Uncle Chipps and the response thus far has been absolutely thrilling.”

Nostalgia knocked on the doors once again, this time by global star Priyanka Chopra. She took to Instagram to share the image of the green packet, along with the catchphrase, ‘Bole Mere Lips…I Love Uncle Chipps’.

So what makes the Uncle Chipps brand, which was launched by Amrit Agro Industries in 1987, so rich in nostalgia?

Making of the campaign

Contract Advertising was established by J. Walter Thompson (JWT) in 1986 (now Wunderman Thompson). The agency was called Contract because it represented an agreement between the client and consumer, client and agency and agency and consumer.

The agency was the advertiser for Amrit Protein Foods, one of the units of Amrit Agro Industries. Since the agency did advertising on edible oil brands of the company, it was a natural choice for them to approach Contract Advertising.

The competition of Uncle Chipps was with three main brands, PepsiCo’s Lays, Binnies chips and Gold’N Krisp potato chips. But their fight was largely with the unbranded market, where the chips were mostly available in sweet shops.

As per Naveen Saraswat, former associate vice president (account management) at Contract Advertising, Uncle Chipps was the market leader with the highest market share at that point of time. Since the brand was the undisputed market leader, the brief that they received from the company was how to convert the market leadership into an emotional bonding between the consumer and the brand.

As Shivjeet Kullar, former creative director at Contract Advertising puts it, when the brief reached the team, it was understood that the company had smaller budgets. Hence, they had to come up with a campaign that would make the brand stand out in a span of 10 or 30 seconds.

In the early 1990s, there were two Indias. There was Hindi India, and the other was English India. Given the backdrop, Kullar mentions that they had to do something which could break the clutter, children could easily remember and it would go a long way on a smaller budget.

Hence, began the process of the conceptualisation of the campaign.

In 1988, George H.W. Bush ran for US Presidential election where in his speech, the line, “Read my lips: no new taxes” tasted fame. This served as the fodder for Kullar, and he derived inspiration from this. He thought, “What if it is ‘Bolo my lips, I love Uncle Chipps?” Finally, it came down to ‘Bole mere lips, I love Uncle Chipps.’

Kullar, who approached the client, Vikram Bajaj, former managing director, Uncle Chipps Company, had two battles to fight. The first was to sell the tagline. Second was that in the 30-second film, only the tagline would be heard.

The marketing manager was not very much in favour. Then, Kullar in one breath said, “My chips are tasty, wonderful, yummy, and delicious.” Everybody (11 people from the client’s side) stared at him and asked “What are you saying?” Bajaj began to laugh and agreed to go with the line.

The screenplay was penned by Kullar, and the ad film was shot by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, who is now a celebrated film director. The music composer for the ad film was Leslie Lewis, and the art director was (late) Pradeep Sarkar.

Uncle Chipps: Advertising and Marketing

Post the release of the campaign in 1994 on a national level on Doordarshan, the campaign became a success. The campaign was not dubbed in any language, and no print campaign was run for Uncle Chipps. Apart from a lot of hoardings, the campaign inspired a Q&A show on the radio.

The jingle became popular, and the brand got a good recall. The company sales people went shop to shop, market by market to talk to the retailers about how they were stocking, how the sales were, what the responses were, etc.

The salesmen used to put the strips across their shoulders and walk down the streets. It would be visible that they are from Uncle Chipps because the pack would be displayed front and back. Young children would approach them and start singing ‘Bole mere lips…’.

After the brand became a success, Amrit Agro Industries was rechristened Uncle Chipps Company in the mid 1990s. After the brand was sold to PepsiCo in 2001, the older name was brought back, mentioned Bajaj.

Uncle Chipps’ Bajaj highlighted, “Post the campaign, we were able to scale up to the West as well as to the South. This led us to look at a new factory in Silvassa in the West. The sales were substantial enough to increase our production capacity, and post the campaign, we sold our North Indian plant.”

Recognition: Nothing can stop us

During that period, Bombay Ad Club had an award named ‘Advertising Works’. Here, they would invite case studies from all over India from clients and agencies. They had to prepare a presentation to highlight what was the impact of the campaign on the sales and market share of the brand besides other parameters.

In 1996, Saraswat submitted the case study on the Uncle Chipps campaign and in 1997 the campaign got shortlisted. The audience was left to decide which case study they liked the best, and Uncle Chipps campaign was voted the second best.

In 1992, Zee TV was the first private general entertainment channel in India, and they instituted Zee Viewership Awards. Uncle Chipps' maiden campaign went on to win the best jingle and most popular film awards. The campaign won several awards in Delhi Ad Club as well.

Bole Mere Lips ...: Take on celebrity endorsements

Uncle Chipps, which was sold to PepsiCo in 2001, from the beginning, was targeted more towards children for they consume chips regularly. The secondary audience was adults including the parents, especially the mothers who had to be convinced that this is a wholesome, healthy and hygienic product which children could have.

In the commercial, though only the tagline ‘Bole mere lips…’ rhymes and is heard by people from different walks of life, what stands out in the ad is its storyline which garnered fame without featuring a well-known personality.

Speaking on the subject of celebrity endorsements, Bajaj is of the opinion that this method is used as a ‘lazy option’ to draw attention towards the brand.

Celebrity advertising should link the brand and the celebrity in such a way that they both are remembered. As per Kullar, keep it simple, take one thing, and only keep repeating that again and again. He mentioned, “The celebrity in Uncle Chipps ad was the slogan, which was easier for children to remember. They remember very simple things like two or three words or a maximum of four words. The moment it is five or six words, it gets complicated for them.”

As per Saraswat, celebrity endorsements depend on how strong the brand is and how strong or good a creative message or idea is. Uncle Chipps was a very strong brand in the chips market and was visible in all retail shops. Hence, there was no need to shell out cash on a celebrity.

In those days, celebrity endorsements were often used to either launch a new brand or build up a brand which was less known or less popular. “The celebrity fees, rather than giving it to a celebrity, we would spend it on the media,” he concluded.