GROUP of uptown young women sit in a swanky beauty salon, making small talk. One of them holds out a pepper spray in her hand. She tells the others that women need to be careful given the many instances of violent attacks on them. A young girl who works at the salon finds herself at the centre of this discussion, when she says that she doesn?t believe in carrying pepper spray bottles; she believes in the ?kaala teeka? or ?black dot? instead. The women stare at her incredulously, and one of them says ?Education problem, guys? implying that the girl is uneducated and hence prone to superstitious beliefs. However, the girl clarifies that it actually refers to the black dot on the index finger of a person who has cast her vote. She tells them if they vote for the right people, they will ensure better safety. The advertisement is the second in the Power of 49 series done for Tata Tea, just ahead of the general election. Another ad released last by Tata Tea showed a light banter between a husband and wife, but drove home the point that politicians cannot afford to ignore women as they constitute 49% of the voter base in India. The company aspires to reach out to over 100 million women through this campaign, and create awareness and encourage them to vote. It tells them to cast an ?informed? and ?independent vote?. Sanjiv Sarin, regional president of South Asia, Tata Global Beverages, which owns the Tata Tea brand, said that the campaign seeks to address the underlying reason for women not getting their due from the establishment. ?We believe that by inspiring 100 million women to vote based on ?women?s issues? we will be able to catalyse change in this space thus benefitting women and also the country.? He added that the Power of 49 has grown from a simple thought to a larger initiative. ?Over the years Jaago Re has become a credible platform for catalysing social change. This time, the campaign seeks to address the underlying reason for women not getting their due from the establishment?the fact that they do not engage sufficiently with the electoral process and do not cast their votes based on an understanding of the stance of candidates on women?s issues.?
The fact is that India is sitting on the hot seat of great social and political change and the themes in ads range from political activism to rights of minorities to gender equality. Increasingly, the country is seeing advertisements that perhaps wouldn?t have made the cut a few years back. The kind of emphasis that Tata Tea is putting on women exercising their electoral suffrage is unprecedented. An ad by jewellery retail chain Tanishq recently made waves after it showed a dusky Indian bride marrying for the second time, while her young daughter participates in the traditional marriage proceedings. Online matrimonial portal Bharat Matrimony came up with an ad where a man is shown having dinner with his aged parents. The wife is still at work.
The concerned father asks if it is a regular occurrence that the wife works this late. He further asks if it is necessary for his daughter-in-law to work at all, since the son?s salary after the promotion should suffice. Around the same time the lady in question returns home and stands by the door and listens in. Her husband stands up for her and tells his father that she doesn?t work to manage the expenses but because she likes it. The wife smiles and looks lovingly at her husband before entering the room. The husband then helps serve her dinner.
Santosh Desai, managing director and chief executive officer at Future Brands says that increasingly brands are echoing citizenry and taking up activist roles. ?Brands consume change and reflect it. On one end of the spectrum, you have the anti-corruption ads, and on the other end, you have a breakdown of traditional gender roles and taboos. You can have an ad today where a woman talks about financial matters and investments. Such brands bring in positive change and break traditional perceptions, but many of them also run the risk of appearing insincere.
For instance, if a fast moving consumer goods company is talking about real beauty for one of its brands, it doesn?t have much meaning until it takes its fairness cream off the market,? says
Desai. He says that while it is perfectly all right to embrace such advertising and use a social change for your advantage, there shouldn?t be a halo attached to the brand or its activities. Very few brands invest long term in such ads, he notes.
When the Supreme Court came out with a ruling on Article 377 of the Indian Constitution, criminalising sex between two consenting adults of the same gender, brands came out in support of gay rights. Jewellery brand Tanishq on its Twitter page uploaded an ad, which showed a pair of diamond earrings with the message ?Two of a kind always make a beautiful pair! #Sec 377?. Allen Solly, a popular clothing brand, too supported the gay and lesbian community by creating a poster using a rainbow flag with the caption ?All colors were created equal #Sec 377?.
In April of last year, Fastrack had released another controversial television commercial featuring two women emerging from a closet ? an extremely rare instance of showing lesbians in mainstream media. It also expressed its support for the gay rights movement by designing a poster with two girls coming out of a pink closet. The caption went ?Come out of the closet?. Hidesign, a luxury goods brand, also tweeted in support of repealing Section 377 which said that ?In a world full of diversities, everyone is created equal?. Amul butter put out an ad on ?Freedom of choice? being given a burial, in context of Section 377.
Sambit Mohanty, creative head at the DDB Mudra North said that change is the only constant in life and that there are many micro and macro trends that the nation is witnessing. ?Some of these are worth mentioning like the changing role and the changing voice of the Indian woman, her economic freedom and space for her aspirations and dreams, which in turn has had a cascading effect on men, households, children and society at large. Or the change in the outlook of the Indian youth. Today?s youth is not yearning to escape India for the US or the UK ? they see a bright future for themselves here,? Mohanty says. He says that the Indian youth of today does not want to be mere spectators?they are willing to get involved. Socially there is a lot more communication?some may say an overdose, thanks to a round-the-clock media, Facebook and mobile telephony. Mohanty adds that India is shedding its garb of conservatism and claiming its rightful place on the world stage. ?Our confidence is reflected in our communication. As a nation, we have become far more assertive and this derring-do is evinced in brand behaviour too.?
Ads that try to drive change
Mohanty concludes that a great example of a brand that leads political change is Tata Tea. ?With its rallying cry of Jaago Re, it not just kindled the flame of activism but also went on to make a point about gender equality (for example, Shah Rukh Khan announcing that all his movies will announce the heroine?s name first and his later). Economically, the spirit of entrepreneurship is being feted and lauded ? Visa recently did an endearing commercial where a man orders parts for a home-made dynamo and helps light up his village.? He added that Gillette?s Soldiers Wanted campaign was tactical and well in time. It spoke about men driving change and standing up for women in the wake of the Delhi rape protests coverage.
Raghu Bhat, co-founder and director at Scarecrow Communications says that westernisation of Indian values, social media, permissiveness, nuclear families, single working women, more disposable income, greater need for entertainment, etc., are some of the factors that are combining to create a complex melting pot of values, dispositions and behaviour. Bhat points out that ad agencies are creating emotionally resonant messages that build bridges with the hearts of consumers. But in this scenario, the focus has to be on the ?unchanging and timeless motivations? of man and woman as much as on the macro changes that are happening. ?These messages can be inspiring or empowering to the individual. At a fundamental level, brands are constantly looking for ways to differentiate. Social empowerment can also be a powerful way to differentiate a brand and give it a stature that goes beyond basic functional and emotional benefits. Advertising definitely can be an agent of social change by crafting socially relevant communication but that is a means to an end rather than the end itself,? says Bhat. In this context, he is struck by the Fastrack lesbian ad spot. Many of these ads would have been unthinkable a few years back, as per him.
Mobilising the masses
Sanjay Tripathy, senior executive vice president and head?marketing at HDFC Life Insurance said that no change is sudden. ?It is the slow, simmering nature of change that causes action in the minds of consumers. Just to name a few things that affect us personally as individuals, the breakdown of the joint family system?a convention present since time immemorial, rise of dual income and no kids households, rise of disposable income, blurring of gender roles and expectations, more tolerance for collaboration, being vocal about sexual norms and sexuality, less tolerance towards corruption and greater involvement of the youth in politics?all these changes in society get reflected back in the ads we are exposed to,? he says.
HDFC Life Insurance has also put the girl child at the centre of its communication. The HDFC Life Smart Woman Plan launched in 2012 celebrated the young, financially independent daughter who is capable enough to plan her finances and fulfill not only her own ambitions, but also the dreams of her loved ones. ?While the whole category glorified the role of the father in financial planning while giving little or no importance to the mother in this decision, we grabbed the opportunity to capture and project the mother?s role as well in the purchase decision and to project her as an equal partner in all important decisions in the household,? says Tripathy. He added that brands should be more open to taking a stand. ?They should do so in a manner that is more likely to put them on the same side as the consumer. Brands have power in numbers and are great potential influencers. They have the strength to mobilise the masses and drive a shift in popular opinion that few charismatic individuals can achieve.?
Kiran Khalap, brand consultant at Chlorophyll says that a book called Towards the Third Modernity by Alain de Vulpian explains how ordinary people are transforming the world everywhere. ?While the ?Third Modernity? is yet to emerge in India (the book provides evidence that the First and Second Modernitys overlapped in India as they emerged after 1991), some of the changes we see are the incipient shoots of this growth. ?The Third Modernity? is characterised by many symptoms: Equal status of women, harmony with others, harmony with nature, self-regulation and empathy?note how urban India is out to support the gay community even though in numbers they are a minority,? he says.
Khalap points out that one of the facilitating factors is the revolution in communication. ?The locus has shifted from institutions to individuals. The revolution achieved through the individual communication device allows every individual to be heard by other individuals. This has emboldened the ordinary citizen, made her aware that she can reach out and converse with like-minded people; can join hands and create a movement and thus, actually initiate change in society, governments, panchayats and municipalities. This is a tectonic change, and you can get a ringside view of giant, half-asleep business organisations and brands becoming irrelevant overnight. Camera companies are in trouble due to smartphones. Big national brands are under threat from value-added retailer brands,? he says. Khalap adds that there can be no brand value, if the brand doesn?t stand for any values. ?But let us not mistake ?values? for abstract nouns like ?integrity?, ?transparency?, ?team spirit? or ?morality?. A brand that believes its value is ?to reduce the price of living? through logistics (Walmart) or ?to reduce the gap between man-machine interaction? (Apple) and sticks to this value in everything it does, will be a brand that creates value,? he says. ?Ad agencies are on their part playing a role in the social movement, by getting sensitised to stereotypes. It is resulting in gender roles for girls in ads which were traditionally assigned to boys.?
The gender divide is in a sense breaking down and so is the age group divide, points out KV Sridhar, chief creative officer at Leo Burnett, India subcontinent. ?Earlier you used to pitch a BMW car to a chief executive, and now you pitch it to 25-30-year-olds. In the past, only household items were pitched to a woman. Today luxury items are pitched as well. Women are seen as equal contributors in nation building.? Sridhar points out that in the context of these changes, brands also have to take on certain values. ?Havells talks about gender equality. In its ad, in the backdrop of a marriage registrar?s office, a boy wants to adopt a girl?s maiden name. Idea Exchange promotes communal harmony. Fastrack talks about coming out of the closet.?
The chief marketing officer at Aditya Birla Group?s Financial Services arm, Ajay Kakar, says that the stereotypes are fading because of sweeping changes in India?s economical and social situation and also changes on the technological front. For instance, a Birla Sun Life ad where a young man is unsure about which profession to pursue and drifts through many, till he finds one which he is really passionate about, he says. People today want to work in areas that they are passionate about and they have more choices than before. They are largely individualistic, unlike previous generations which went largely with popular career choices such as government service, medicine, engineering, etc., he said.
Are a lot of these peripheral changes? Anil Nair, chief executive and managing partner at L&K Saatchi & Saatchi says that a lot of activism displayed by people is armchair activism. Similarly, a lot of the activism displayed by brands is lip service. ?The fact is that brands are under tremendous pressure to deliver.
Quarter on quarter results and the fight for market share do not allow very many companies to take a stand.
A lot of the advertising is still based on offers and promotions. The brands that drive change are few and far between,? he said.
Desai of Future Group says that very few brands understand that there is great responsibility that goes with such advertising. ?If you adopt a social cause, you have to invest in it. Brands need to show both restraint and respect and follow it through the long term.?