Ad Controversy: Blatant disregard for the External Marketing Environment?

This festive season saw a barrage of advertisements and a lot of controversies associated with many of them. Several of such ad campaigns had to be either entirely removed or replaced due to severe backlash faced by brands, especially on social media.

Clothing brand FabIndia had faced huge resistance for its promotional snippet named Jashn-e-Riwaz and was accused of appropriating Urdu with the traditional Hindu festival of Diwali. One of the ruling party’s MP had alleged this as a move towards abrahamisation of this festival by FabIndia.

Fab India had tweeted: As we welcome the festival of love and light, Jashn-e-Riwaz by FabIndia is a collection that beautifully pays homage to Indian culture.

Fab India came up with a clarification that the particular campaign was not about its Diwali collection, which will be launched later (The campaign was named Jhilmil si Diwali). They also deleted the earlier tweet.

Another trending hashtag, related to FabIndia as well as some other Ads promoted during the Diwali time was #NoBindiNoBusiness. This was started by Shefali Vaidya, a popular author and popular voice on the Social Media platform as a boycott movement against those brands which featured Diwali ads with models in traditional attire not wearing a Bindi on their forehead. She argued against these ads and alleged it as a deliberate attempt to de-Hinduise Diwali and compared the models in these ads to Rudalis (section of ladies who cries at funerals).

During this trending hashtag campaign, Shefali had shared several ads featuring models without a bindi and asked to boycott such brands. Many brands had to replace their campaigns and/or edit the existing campaigns to avoid the harsh impact of this boycott call.

Earlier in September, another ad by the clothing brand Manyavar Mohey featuring the famous actress Alia Bhat was amidst controversy and was the hot topic of discussion on social media. In the advertisement, Alia Bhat clad in the bridal attire questions the practice of giving away daughters to the groom’s family considering her as a burden, and thus stresses on replacing Kanya daan with Kanya Maan (respecting daughters instead of donating them). However, the ad faced severe backlash as it was seen as showcasing Hindu traditions and rituals in poor light.

Another controversial ad, that was had faced severe backlash was Sabyasachi’s Mangalsutra campaign. The controversy arose as it was alleged out that Sabyasachi used semi-naked models for this particular campaign to showcase its Mangalsutra collection which is considered to be an inherent symbol of Holy Hindu marriage. The Home Minister of Madhya Pradesh had issued an ultimatum to Sabyasachi to remove this particular advertisement. The ad campaign was later taken down by Sabyasachi clarifying that it did not intend to hurt the sentiments of a certain section of society.

Earlier jewelry brand Tanishq had also faced a similar boycott after its ad campaign that showed the baby shower ceremony of a Hindu girl married in a Muslim household and was accused of promoting inter-faith marriages and love-jihad. The ad was recalled after severe backlash and Tanishq had to come up with a clarification.  A few years ago, the detergent brand Surf-excel also faced a similar situation when it tried to promote inter-religious harmony through its ad campaign but was seen as otherwise by some sections.

From the marketing perspective, one thing that these controversies and backlashes have brought forth is the apathy shown by marketers towards the impact of the external marketing environment on their brand.

The marketing environment consists of factors both internal and external to the organization that affects the business and its ability to fruitfully serve its customers. The internal marketing environment is related to the environmental factors within the company. The external marketing environment refers to the external factors outside the company that could affect the company or the brand. The external environment consists of the technological, demographic, socio-cultural, economic, politico-legal, and physical environment.

As evident from the backlash faced by the brands, there was a clear lack of understanding and or deliberate ignorance of the external marketing environment- especially the socio-cultural and political factors influencing the markets. Considering the present socio-cultural setting in the country along with the political scenario, these ads were bound to raise eyebrows and stoke controversies. It is high time Marketers involved with these campaigns revisit marketing 101 and ensure to stay away from controversies. Negative attention can do more harm than positive attention nowadays.

 In the case of FabIndia, #NobindiNobusiness, Manyavar Mohey, and Tanishq it was the socio-cultural factors that had led to the backlash, whereas political factors were also involved in the case of Sabyasachi’s Mangalsutra collection and Surf Excel ads

Brands and marketers should carry out proper research and market testing before releasing advertisements that link themselves with age-old traditions and practices. As in the case of Manyavar, the marketers tried to highlight the literal meaning of Kanyadaan which was not the actual meaning for which the word stood in the traditional context. Parallels could be drawn with the Telegraph campaign where it asked to replace putran dehi with santan dehi in prayers during Durga Pujo without realizing the actual meaning of putran dehi in Sanskrit which means seeking a child and not seeking a male child as portrayed.

Brands must constantly involve in social commentary and should play a lead in being the change agent and highlighting the social deficiencies and providing solutions to them. However, they must understand that they are treading a very thin line and even the slightest of mistake could lead to bad repercussions as evident from the examples above. Sometimes in the urge to be bold they go overboard and come out as looking stupid.

The ad mentioned above was seen as constantly targeting festivals and traditions related to only one religion, though these brands might have intended to bring the prospect of equality and social reforms to the fore. Hence it becomes important for the brand and marketers to avoid projecting a negative perception especially in the eyes of its target market and be seen as opposing their beliefs and traditions, However, it is equally important that they should not fall prey to cancel culture and trolls on social media and ensure proper social media management through proper communication to its customers.

Brands on a broader level should also use festival marketing in a way that highlights the commonalities and synergies between the brand image, the festival, and the customer. If these three are not aligned, there are very high chances of misinterpretation of the messages that the brand is trying to convey. Some of the Diwali ads shared by Shefali Vaidya did underline this fact as the imagery looked entirely opposite to what Diwali was all about – Spreading Light and Happiness.

These controversies also raise one more serious question. Can the brands put the entire responsibility of an advertisement on the ad agency? The brands should constantly be involved in the ad making throughout its journey and not just in the initial phase just to give a brief about the campaign to the ad agency. Considering how fast the external marketing environments change and also the fact that the negative impact of a viral trend or social media post could hamper the prospects of a brand, it becomes imperative for the marketers to be part of the entire campaign keeping in mind the impact and response of the external marketing environment.