Abusive language will diminish AAP's brand value, warns ad guru K V Sridhar

K V Sridhar, ad guru and now also an AAP member, says AAP needs to keep its tone right

K V Sridhar, one of Indian advertising industry’s doyens and the national creative director of Leo Burnett India, says that the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) needs to check its tone of voice if it has to keep its brand differentiated and refrain from abusive language. 

 

“The basic reason AAP has the country’s sympathy is because of the plank of anti-corruption that it took, which was also in tune with its senior members who have a clean image,” he says. It is this perception which has worked in AAP’s favour so far and is in danger of getting jeopardised. “While the Congress might insist that it is democratic, people have seen that it is the AAP which has actually enlisted their opinion and given them equity. But if AAP resorts to abuse then it would go against the Gandhian idea of andolan that it had adopted, which is about the strength of deeds and not talk.  It could make its supporters compare it with those it is trying to be an antithesis of.”

 

Not just differentiation, Sridhar says it could also diminish the coveted brand value that the activist party has been able to build over the last few months. “No brand should come across as cheap, which means that the audience should have a sense of pride in ownership. AAP is right in picking up specific issues relating to good governance and anti-corruption. But if it confuses challenging such issues with going after individuals, then the value would go down. This kind of just talk would make it no different from the others,” he says. “Who the Home Minister is does not matter, but the ministry’s control over the Delhi’s police does,” he says.

 

Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti has been under attack for saying, 'I want to spit at the faces of Arun Jaitley and Harish Salve'. AAP has already apologised for the statement with senior party leader Yogendra Yadav clarifying that the minister's 'language was not acceptable for the party'. Another leader Kumar Vishwas is also under storm for his crude comments against Muharram and racist jokes targeting nurses from kerala. Vishwas has already apologised for his comments which he clarfied was in his earlier avataar as a poet.

 

While AAP has got its tone muddled of late, Sridhar says BJP has found the right one, while the Congress and Rahul Gandhi, its vice-president, are yet to find it. “Narendra Modi (BJP’s prime ministerial candidate) sorted out his branding over the last year and a half. Yes, his weak point is secularism but development and economic progression are now being seen as his strengths,” Sridhar says. 

 

But Congress, Sridhar says, needs to come up with a compelling reason for people to reconsider it, being now viewed as an incumbent. “If you are seen as an old brand with a fuddy-duddy image then you need to be clear what is it the consumer would want to reconsider you for. Congress keeps on talking about RTI (Right to Information bill) and the Lokpal bill but the people know that these exist not because of it, but inspite of it. Aggression can’t come with shouting but through action,” says Sridhar. 

 

Sridhar has recently become a member of the AAP party and says it is only as a show of support. He has not taken part in any of its decision-making processes. Here he has analysed the political party as an industry veteran and not in his personal capacity.