- The Liril soap jingle was inspired by a 1968-69 Henkels Fa European ad campaign
- The original jingle was composed by German Klaus Doldinger under the alias Paul Nero
- Liril’s first Indian ad aired in 1974
Who can forget the iconic Liril soap advertisement that showed a carefree woman bathing under a waterfall, accompanied by the unforgettable Laaa la la la la jingle? For decades, the ad has been remembered as one of Indian advertising's most popular ones.
Now, marketing and communications strategist Karthik Srinivasan has revisited the history of the Liril advertisement, pointing out its lesser-known links to foreign advertising campaigns. Taking to X, he shared a detailed thread tracing the origins of the famous jingle.
What He Wrote
Karthik began his post by drawing attention to the familiarity of the jingle and the surprise behind its origins. He wrote, "If I say, Liril Soap and Laaa la la la la, many people may start humming the classic Liril soap ad jingle. But the shocker is that the jingle was not original, but "inspired"! The bigger shocker was that the original jingle was also made for a lime-based soap just like HUL's Liril - Henkel's Fa!"
He then provided historical background on the original advertisement, explaining that the tune first appeared in a European campaign several years earlier.
According to Srinivasan, "Henkel's Fa ad campaign in 1968-69 by the Dusseldorf-based agency Hubert Troost Werbeagentur (usually called Troost) featured the Laaa la la la la song. It was composed by the German composer Klaus Doldinger. The jingle became so popular that a vinyl single of the track (Listen: https:// tinyurl.com/klauswildfresh) was released in 1969 under the pseudonym Paul Nero Sounds (one of Doldinger's aliases for his more commercial/pop-oriented output at the time), explicitly tied to the Fa commercial: Paul Nero Sounds (Klaus Doldinger) - Wild Freshness (FA Commercial)'. It appeared on compilations like Pop-Shopping: Juicy Music From German Commercials 1960-1975."
Srinivasan went on to explain when and how Liril entered the Indian market, highlighting how closely its first commercial followed the Fa template.
He wrote that, "Liril's (the soap itself inspired by Fa) first ad was released in 1974, in cinema theaters. It featured Air India stewardess Karen Lunel and was made by the agency Lintas and directed by Kailash Surendranath. The jingle was credited to Vanraj Bhatia (even though he simply added some Indian elements like Sitar as an interlude; the actual melody was a direct lift from the Fa ad jingle by Klaus) and was sung by Preeti Desai."
In his concluding remarks, Srinivasan placed the similarities within the larger context of creative practices in India during that period.
Shedding light on the visual and musical overlap, he stated, "That two lime-based soaps, across 2 countries, have almost similar visual devices (shots of the soap interspersed with bikini-clad women bathing) and identical music is no coincidence and is probably part of the larger ethos of that time in India when Hindi film music too heavily "borrowed" from foreign sources without any credit. I should know, because I created an entire website listing original songs against many, many Indian film songs: https://tinyurl.com/itwofswebsite (many of the song links may be broken but you can always Google the titles and find new uploads on YouTube). The Fa ad plays first, followed by the Liril ad."
The Liril ad was directed by Kailash Surendranath.
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