Cadbury 5 Star to Nirma's ad: Why are brands failing laughter challenge?

For Mondelez India, its recent Cadbury 5 Star ad that had an old woman thanking a young man for 'doing nothing' as she picks up her stick was seen as insensitive and caricaturing the youth

Cracking a smile on someone’s face is hard work. Ask a stand-up comic, a clown or simply turn to the brands that have hit the trip wires in their attempts to raise a few laughs. 

For Mondelez India, its recent Cadbury 5 Star ad that had an old woman thanking a young man for 'doing nothing' as she picks up her stick (and miraculously escapes a falling piano) was seen as insensitive and caricaturing the youth. Nirma’s timeline was jammed with protesters for an ad that showed a victorious Maratha king being reprimanded by his wife for coming back home with muddied clothes. Another, by Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance, has not met with as vehement an opposition but angered many for stereotypical gender portrayal where women are shown as superstitious and hesitant to talk about insurance. 

Humour that targets a section of society or laughs at the expense of another is always a slippery slope, say brand experts. But should brands steer clear of such storylines, given their propensity to go awry? On that, brand experts are a divided house.

Founder Mogae Media, Sandeep Goyal who has spent several decades in the advertising profession believes that society is becoming more intolerant towards humour but that should not deter advertisers. “Humour should be business as usual. It is not lakhs of people, but just a few hundreds, who drive a negative trend for brands. Just because there are some trolls, it doesn't mean you let go of the ideas. If you have a good idea, run it,” says Goyal.

A Nirma ad with Akshay Kumar as a Maratha king facing his wife’s ire for his dirty laundry have both failed to raise any laughs

While this may be true, being funny is not the best way to promote one’s brand, say others. Harish Bijoor, CEO of Harish Bijoor Consults and Khushboo Solanki Sharma, Founder of Zero Gravity Communications believe it is better to play safe than be sorry later. 

“We live in sensitive times where there is a far greater degree of polarisation and in such a society everything becomes sensitive. Brands, therefore, need to be extra sensitive. Avoid humour to sell your brand since there is nothing called humour for all. What is funny to one, is not funny to someone else,” says Bijoor.

Sharma, on the other hand, asks brands and advertisers to be more responsible and review ideas in a mix target group before making it public. “Brands can’t afford getting mixed with political, regional sensitive topics just to be popular,” she adds.

Humour if done well can be extremely rewarding too. For instance, the OTT (over the top) platform Netflix regularly wins fans for its short, pithy one-liners as does Zomato, Mother Dairy and of course, Amul that has mastered the art of tongue-in-cheek topicality. 

The Nirma ad, say experts, ran into rough weather because the humour was stale and the execution was poor. Akshay Kumar as a Maratha king who is being ticked off by his wife did not go down well with a community that has always held its machismo in great regard. As for the Cadbury ad, it was poorly timed. Showing the young people as a generation that is so engrossed in its own pleasures and does nothing to help anyone else was a serious lapse in judgement, coming as it did in the midst of the ongoing protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act where the youth have taken the lead. 

Experts point out that old 5 Star ads have built their storylines on the same premise—that once you bite into the chocolate, you lose track of the world around you.  However in this instance, a young boy continuing to relish his chocolate bar while an old woman struggled to get back on her feet was seen as insensitive.

Goyal says that brands have to walk a tightrope today as social mores around funny and not-funny and offensive have changed. “As a society, we are becoming intolerant in terms of being funny. Everything is being attached a motive even when there is none. It is a function of the society (we live in), rather than any problem with the ads. People have become hyper sensitive,” he adds. 

Adding fuel to fire is social media that amplifies every message until it turns into an avalanche of opinion. To play the humour card well, brands must factor the medium as much as their message.