Brands are categorically asking creatives and marketers to steer clear of religion, politics or anything that has the potential to offend, so that it doesn’t ruffle feathers.
This week, AU Small Finance Bank faced backlash online for an advertisement that featured actors Aamir Khan and Kiara Advani. The ad, which depicts the groom (Khan) taking the first step into the house of the bride (Advani), mocked Hindu traditions, some netizens said.
Earlier, Khan’s film
Laal Singh Chaddha had also faced boycott calls online. Akshay Kumar-starrer Raksha Bandhan and
Ranbir Kapoor-Alia Bhatt’s Brahmastra, too, have faced the heat from irate netizens.
Brand strategists are now working on promotional and trailer-level edits exploring various current trending topics on the internet to assess what could go in favour of the movie or ad campaign.
“When we review content, we make clients aware of trends in the past about the actor, actress, content or what the general online chatter has been – whether it has been positive, negative or neutral, through our propreitary tool,” said Mitesh Kothari, the co-founder of the brand and digital agency White Rivers Media.
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“There have been a lot of trailers recently where we have helped filmmakers with our suggestions. Even with brands, clients are telling us that they don’t want to be caught in a negative trend. And these discussions are happening at the boardroom level,” Kothari said.
Several brands have also been targets of boycott calls.
Jewellery house Tanishq stirred a controversy in October 2020 when it released an ad showing a Hindu-Muslim couple. Soon, #BoycottTanishq was a top trend on Twitter with more than 19,000 people tweeting for a ban on the advertisement and the jewellery brand.
Last year, FabIndia was criticised for its Diwali festive line – ‘Jashn-e-Riwaaz’ – with social media users saying the Urdu phrase hurt Hindu sentiments.
Soon after,
Dabur became the target after an ad by the FMCG company showed a lesbian couple celebrating Karva Chauth for its Fem Creme bleach.
Harish Bijoor, founder of brand and business strategy consulting firm Harish Bijoor Consults, said that he has advised brands and actors against making any comments about not using firecrackers during Diwali.
“No brand is saying that (‘don’t use firecrackers’) this year either,” he said. “We are also advising clients not to wish people for particular festivals. In the US ‘Happy Holidays’ is the norm. In India there is a need to de-festivalise a festival. Because I believe that if a brand wishes for one festival, it should wish for all. That’s fair. That’s equitability and brand neutrality.”
Bijoor said he has a two-member dedicated team to purely review content and, so far, his firm has already received over 80 review requests this year.
The consultancy had about 150 such requests last year.
Bijoor expects the number to be higher by the end of 2022.
Right side of the law
Brands and filmmakers are also increasingly getting their content reviewed by lawyers.
“This practice (of reviewing content) has been very active off-late and picked up significantly when OTT platforms have come under scrutiny for their content in India,” Vivek Sriram, Partner at Khaitan & Co, told ET. “We have a team that regularly advise clients on whether any content – a dialogue or scene – could potentially violate Indian law. It is hard to take an objective position on what can or won’t offend someone or a group in general but we broadly have an idea about what is definitely a red flag and (what brands) should steer clear of and accordingly advise out clients on that basis.”
There are brands that are ready to push the envelope though larger ones always find it harder to stick to their stand as they have to appeal to a wider audience, said Kothari of White Rivers Media.
“With brands, we try to play the middle ground and not do anything that could offend. I remember creating content for a brand a few weeks back and this question came up about not wanting to create anything which was going to cause any trouble,” said Rutu Mody Kamdar, founder and managing director of Jigsaw Brand Consultants. “Everyone is now going to play it safe – unless you’re a brand with a personality that is rebellious. Then the brand can rightfully take some risks and should be okay to bear the repercussions too,” she said.
Largely, brands prefer to keep a low profile rather than be in the eye of a storm, said Vishal Sengar, principal consultant and founder of Brand Provoke Consultants.
“Five years ago, brands would not hesitate to comment on an issue. Around eight out of 10 brands would pick up issues on religion or politics or social issues but today that number has come down to about four. Brands are clear that they would rather not be in the limelight and are not interested in courting controversy,” he said.
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