Politics stirs the mix for brands

Paytm, Jio, among others are courting controversy by getting political with their advertising

Presidents have rarely made it to an endorsers’ list, but given the pace with which they are being appropriated by companies to talk about their brands, that wall could soon be breached. Paytm used Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s face to laud him (and pat itself on the back) for his digital foresight. Before that Jio, which calls itself the world’s largest start-up, did the same by dedicating its launch to the prime minister. More recently, Devita Saraf, founder and CEO of Vu Technologies, took out a full page advertisement with her standing beside US President Donald Trump in which she congratulated him on being the brand new POTUS while Nestaway took on Trump’s polarising diatribe by saying that it was time to ‘trump discrimination’. And in the US, a host of brands such as Airbnb, Uber and many others have steered themselves into the travel ban controversy with strong statements against the policy.

For businesses that have long steered clear of politics, this does seem like a radical shift. But in an age where impassioned consumers look for deeper engagement with the brands they eat, wear and imbibe, communication experts say, radical is the new normal. A recent article in the New York Times that analysed the ads appearing during the Super Bowl over the weekend said that while several silly and comic ads aired during the event, the ones that grabbed the most attention were those that got political with their messages. And getting political today is akin to getting on the right (or wrong) side of strongmen rulers.

The trend has been in the making for some time now. In India, the morning after Prime Minister Narendra Modi dropped the demonetisation bomb, people woke up to advertisements featuring the PM and online wallet major Paytm congratulating him for the ‘boldest decision in financial history’. Full page jacket advertisements were issued at premium rates because of the last minute requisition. “As soon as we got the go ahead from the top management, we started working on the design, the text, and idea of the advertisement. We got in touch with the major national dailies, asked them if they could bring out our full page advertisement. By 11.30 pm on November 8, we had sent out the advertisement content to the newspapers,” said a senior executive at Paytm.

Cut to January 20, people woke up to full page ads in several national dailies of Devita Saraf, founder and CEO of Vu Technologies and Donald Trump. In both instances Tweeple had a field day panning the companies. In fact for Paytm things have been tense ever since, as everyone, from the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, has taken potshots at the company, even alleging the present government being hand in glove with them. It seems to have even rubbed the government up the wrong way as media reports suggest that Paytm (and Jio) did not seek the PMO’s permission before running the ads.

Given this, is such branding ultimately good for the brand? Does it not alienate a segment of the population and thereby deny the brand  its due customer base? According to experts, at times like these, any publicity is good publicity and the more controversial the subject the better. However in the long run, the association of the brand with the advertisement tends to play a role in customers choosing or avoiding the particular product.

“One thing is that any kind of exploitation of something which is highly topical even if it is polarising tends to grab eyeballs. If the objective is to get brand awareness, that certainly gets done, as you get fair amount of traction. The Holy Grail however lies in the emotional connect that is where polarising effect is sharp. Some people might or might not use Reliance Jio or Paytm because of the advertisement,” said Samit Sinha, managing director Alchemist Brand Consulting.

Saraf said that the ad that her company ran was to celebrate success. “It’s a celebration of success for me, our company as well as for Donald Trump. He is my father’s age and I find him inspiring. What I like about him is that he has done a lot for businessmen,” she had said in an earlier interview with Business Standard. As for the Twitter backlash, Saraf says, “It was the same when I decided to be the brand ambassador of my company, later on people appreciated it.” While many on Twitter swore never to buy Vu Televisions, Saraf herself said that the advertisement did her plenty good.

On a different note, the government itself is not averse to using the image of the prime minister far more freely than other parties have done in the past. Recently his photograph was used in Khadi Gram Udyog’s annual calendar and table diary instead of the staple image of Mahatma Gandhi. While Khadi Village Industries Commission (KVIC) chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena defended the decision and said it wasn’t unusual and changes have been made in the past, it reportedly left the PM fuming.

“It depends on the kind of campaign. If it is a government-run programme say Incredible India, then the PM being the face makes sense. But why should a mobile wallet capitalise on that? That is why Ministry of Corporate Affairs sent a notice to the company,” said a senior official. While Paytm will have to answer that one, the time for brands to shy away from political controversy is clearly over.