CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS RE-VISITED!

Are celebs paid monster-bucks for their glamour, star attraction and red-hot performance curve in their area of showbiz, or snow-white morality and politically correct image in the public space? 

Suddenly, ‘High Performance: Delivered’ – the signature line of the globally renowned Accenture – has taken on weird dimensions, crazy spins and is providing spicy material for a blitz of wisecracks across the Chat Show domain in the US! Tiger Woods’ alleged colourful and action-packed whammo with a slew of attractive young ladies has landed him in the dog-house and ruined his erstwhile blissful family life. Enough has been written and lots more will be pounded out by the by the paparazzi, but the point of the debate is – why this madness, insanity and hi-decibel hue n’ cry about a hi-profile celebs’ infidelity? Does it make sense for Tiger’s sponsors to immediately dump him because of this recent scandal? Was he (in the first place) hired for his morality and pristine goody-two shoes image or spectacular performance on the golf-course and killer charisma as a sporting icon?

Vinita Nangia, Editor, Timelife, believes that this vicious, all-pervasive tirade and frenzied reaction to the ‘lovecheat’ is totally unwarranted. She appears convinced that this hysterical outburst is tinged with the ‘envy’ factor and is of the opinion that entertainers and sports people have a responsibility and commitment to only one area – their performance. Unlike politicians and public servants, they are not beholden to the masses to demonstrate moral fortitude! “Wouldn’t every man who is drunk on success and surrounded by swooning women begging to be propositioned, slip once in a while? Moral policing and witch-hunting can destroy his game forever and the loss will be entirely ours.” Theatre and adman Bharat Dabolkar agrees, “Brands signed Woods because of his prowess on the golf course. Sex scandals are not going to overnight screw his game or make him a bad sportsman for Chrissake! In the past, sports persons were dumped because of criminal and not moral lapses.”
 
Ad film-maker Prahlad Kakkar insists that “How hypocritical and corny can society get? I think most of the men could secretly wonder how better endowed the Golf Superstar is compared to them, to rattle-up such a fantastic score-card! I would advise Tiger to immediately relocate to France, the one place on earth where girlfriends and mistresses are perceived as trophies and winning advantages! Jacques Chirac at age 80, is still on the job [if reports are to be believed], so Tiger could be a God there!” Media Entrepreneur & Chairman of PNC, Pritish Nandy dismisses it disdainfully as he says, “It’s a reflection of the double-faced and hypocritical times we live in. We’ve had far more scandalous goings which have not been talked about.” Nandy points out that the Western Media – US especially – believes that celebrities should lead sanitised, squeaky-clean lives and be held up as models of virtue and values. “Do you know that reports and statistics have indicated that nine out of ten marriages collapse in the US because of infidelity? Which planet are they living in?!” questions Nandy.

Chicago-based ad-person Namita Sen, however, is hopping mad! “It’s a disgrace! Sure the sponsors pick up a celeb for skills he/she exhibits in his/her chosen field, but not at the expense of immoral and irresponsible behaviour! Once you are in the public domain, revered, idolised and hero-worshipped by your zillion-fans, you have a moral obligation to not ‘be seen’ doing anything that would tarnish this image. Agreed they are also human beings with their share of weaknesses, but for gawdssake, at least be discreet.” Mumbai-based housewife, Suman Mehra agrees, “It’s shocking! I loved Tiger Woods. He was cool, sexy and charismatic with a gorgeous wife and lovely kids. What a creep he turned out to be! He’s bad news as a brand ambassador. A brand is about reflecting core values.”

In the past, Salman Khan, Fardeen Khan, Kate Moss, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton (among a zillion others) have played with fire and emerged with different degrees of damage. Many have bounced back because the public has a short memory and the ever-hungry, promiscuous and sensation-seeking media quickly moves across to the next big stink. The buzz is that with wife Elin moving out, pressing for divorce and demanding half his incredible fortune, there could well be a ‘sympathy vote/shift’ towards Tiger. And then who knows, both the growl and the sponsors could well be back!

At the end of the day, we live in an age of gross opportunism where everything is up for sale. In the case of celeb-disgrace, it might do some good to remember the classic line: When giants fall, dwarfs walk tall. 

CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS RE-VISITED!

PASSION OR PRAGMATISM? TAKE ONE!

Is it conviction and heart that inspires great communication or sheer hard nosed professionalism? 4Ps B&M's Monojit Lahiri does a checkout with some eminent creative hot-shots...

It was an idle conversation with eminent filmmaker Shyam Benegal that really got this issue into focus. As an evolved, informed and culturally-savvy communicator, Benegal believed that in the area of creative-driven professions (Film, Advertising, Theatre … whatever) there will always be themes, roles, offers, jobs and assignments that may not necessarily viagrise your creative juices – but hey, big deal! It’s a job, remember? So, as a smart, focused and result-oriented Pro, it’s your job to give it your best. The respected Movie Guru insists that “your mandate is to bring your professional skills and expertise to the table and deliver what needs to be delivered in the appropriate fashion. I don’t really see any conflict or soul-destroying problem there – especially in the arena of Advertising, where there is a specific job to do.” Another veteran, Equinox Big Boss Sumantra Ghoshal (Cherry Blossom, Hamara Bajaj) a revered, thinking, Ad Film maker, agrees. He says that it’s impossible to get up close and personal with every brand you work for because the duration is rarely over six weeks. Besides passionate involvement is not the name of the game in most cases. “It is about being sensitive and honest to the brand personality, what it represents and communicates it with the magic and chutzpah at your disposal to the select target group that matters.”

Exec Creative Director (JWT) Anuja Chauhan comes in next. Slamming a huge sixer with her maiden novel The Zoya Factor (picked up by SRK’s Production Red Chillies Entertainment) and responsible for such deathless slogans as Dil Mange More, the petite phataka pushes the Benegal-Ghoshal button, even harder. “I would not fall back on romanticised passion or inspiration as my drivers to approach an assignment. I would go in with an open mind and invest in the job all the truth, sincerity, dedication and creative energy at my disposal. Sure, there are preferences and one is inclined to enjoy working with one particular category more but that’s neither here nor there. For me, professionalism is the key.” Ogilvy’s resident dude Sumanto Chat agrees. “Early on in my career, there may have been roadblocks and some product lines a real pain, but with time I’ve learnt to work it out.” Experience and maturity remains the best teacher, he suggests and a healthy detachment from the brand lends it the required objectivity necessary to give the creative quotient the right spin. “Of course there will always be preferences … for me, the Unilever brands, for example, remain real close to my heart. And luckily, I have a super team to make up for all my deficiencies!”

Pritish Nandy provides the first chord of dissent. “For me, I think its instinctive. If a theme, storyline or an idea doesn’t instantly turn me on, give me a hard-on, excite me – its an immediate no-no! There is no question of cultivating it, making it an acquired taste and soldiering on for this highly, over-rated animal called professionalism! Something, somewhere has to click, pronto. Remember, I am not looking to impress, but move people emotionally to a different plane. That comes from passion not pragmatism; heart not head, mate”. Creative Consultant Sonam Khanna agrees. The San Francisco-based writer believes that “The professionalism bit doesn’t really work where there is a creative calling”. Creativity comes from within and has nothing to do with hard-nosed discipline. I never ever accept any assignment that doesn’t fuse with my basic sensibilities. I know because of my experience and knowledge, I will perhaps be able to deliver – but it clashes with my conscience. It won’t be something I am proud of or honestly given it my all. And I detest the chalta hai, theek hai, client to okay kar diya attitude. For me, I am the judge and jury and unless I am really charged, it’s a polite but firm NO!”

Rediffusion’s Mumbai-based NCD Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar wraps up the debate with his distinctive take. “I think it’s a personal thing. For me, doing stuff for a new category, client or product is hugely exciting because I am playing blind and getting sleepless nights! That’s my big NO! Otherwise, repeating the familiar is comfortable … but God, so boring!”

So, for different folks, different strokes, huh?!
 

PASSION OR PRAGMATISM? TAKE ONE!

HAS BOLLYWOOD HIJACKED ADVILLE?

Star-endorsements. Story-telling techniques. Look n’ feel. Histrionics … Has today’s Adland abdicated to a glam, cool and confident Bollywood? Has the Persuasion Industry gone ‘filmy’ and sold out? 4Ps B&M's Monojit Lahiri investigates...

Once upon a time Advertising had an identity and life of its own. The business followed the tenets of scientific discipline, paying total respect to the ground-rules laid down by the powers-that-were. With the exception of LUX (The Beauty soap of film stars) hardly any film celeb or Bollywood flavour touched Ad-land. Across all categories, creativity expressed itself effectively without any help from B-town. None of the Gurus – Alyque Padamsee, Mohammed Khan, Kersi Katrak, Frank Simoes, Ivan Arthur, Sylvie D’cunha – even remotely flirted with the filmy stuff. Today the Adspace is almost defined by the Bollywood style of communication! How did that happen … and why? Does it represent stimulating value-addition, corruption or abdication from an industry, continuously lamenting on the paucity of good creative people who can engage and entertain even while they convert charmed viewers to interested buyers? Has Advertising become so star-struck that it has lost the ability to create exciting campaigns with the PRODUCT as star and slam home a super-hit?

Who better to kick off this debate than a hot-shot professional who successfully wears two hats (one in B-town and the other in Adville), Prasoon Joshi. “Two things. One, while Bollywood today is definitely the great leveler in terms of an indisputable connect with the masses – cutting across religion, language, cultures, caste, creed etc – one mustn’t forget that it’s really a throwback on our oral tradition which was anchored in magical story-telling. Two, the earlier rigid rules, set by an Anglo Saxon and elitist coterie that defined the times, are no longer relevant today with mini-metros unleashing big-time purchasing power. Chandigarh, Pune, Durgapur or Jaipur aren’t one-horse towns anymore. And if you want your product or services to blitz their radar, you could do much worse than ride the Bollywood gravy-train. How effectively you leverage their idiom and styling and blend it with the ‘brand-fit’ to seduce your customers to go for it, depends on your professional ability to understand the game … but Bollywood’s impact on the masses is undeniable.”

TAPROOTS’ Agnello Dias (whose LEAD INDIA & TEACH INDIA campaigns zonked the hell out of the Cannes bozos last year) brings his own perspective to the table. “It’s true. Five years ago, Advertising chose Bollywood to make its point. Today it’s vice-versa! I think it’s a marriage of convenience, in most cases. The faded, fading as well as hot n’ happening stars earn much more through endorsements in a year than in movies. And for lazy creative types, stars are a great device for star-struck advertisers. Aggie feels it represents a crippling breakdown of trust and faith between ad agencies and their clients vis-à-vis original ideas. Bollywood-specific reference points (someone like the Munnabhai character or the Aamir character in T2P) seem to connect easily and quickly and in a more seductive manner.

Moving on, Aggie feels very strongly about this new, fashionable disease called “Indian advertising” and slams it, big time. “Piyush Pandey, Prasoon Joshi and gang meant well when they kicked off this movement, accomplished creative practitioners as they are. Unfortunately, they unleashed a Frankenstein. Today it’s perfectly okay to produce mediocre ads in Indian language (Hindi) but to be good in the Western context (English) is no big deal! Inverted snobbery is on an overdrive! Corny rhyming, popular Bollywood rip-offs, anything goes in the name of connecting with the heartland and this, to my mind, is the biggest cause of this mediocrity.” Aggie says that it’s reached such a point that young people coming from missionary schools and colleges often hide their background, lest they be passed-over for the Hindi-speaking small-town kids! Whatta life!”
 
Santosh Desai begs to differ. Social Commentator, ex Ad-man & CEO of the Future Group, he comes on strong with his very own take on the subject. “On the face of it, I would agree, but there is a larger context that needs to be looked at. A decade ago (or whatever the time that pre-dates this phenomenon) Bollywood was perceived as an entity that catered to the lowest common denominator and a constituency that the educated, English-speaking middle-class looked down upon. There was a definite elitist distancing of what moved India and Advertising operated, very much through the Class system. That thinking has been dumped in recent times (thank God!) and replaced by the belief that Advertising speaks to everybody and no one can take a judgmental view on its consumers. This has led to a loosening up, further re-enforced by the kind of people who have come into the industry in recent times. Most importantly, the market has legitimised the popular and this is manifested across the board … and what is more popular than Cricket and Bollywood?”

Desai – as opposed to Aggie – however roots strongly for the ‘Indian’ kind of advertising and confesses that he is highly suspicious about people who feel insecure about it. “It’s simple. You have no choice to be Indian because you speak to Indian people. If you have lost out in your ability to communicate to this constituency and start cribbing about it … it’s a case of sour grapes!

A pathetic persecution complex syndrome! While everyone writing in Hindi admittedly may not be a whiz, anyone doing stuff in English, similarly need not be a cult figure! Utter rubbish! Ultimately it’s not us versus them. It’s about questioning, probing and seeking new ways to evolve in a manner that is true to your calling as an effective communication practitioner …”

What’s your take, evolved reader? 

HAS BOLLYWOOD HIJACKED ADVILLE?

IS THE LIQUOR ADVERTISING BAN JUSTIFIED?

4Ps B&M's Monojit Lahiri spoke to a bunch of celebs who made sparks fly – before toasting to a ban of this absurd rule!

We live in strange and troubled times, brother …

We are allowed the manufacture and consumption of liquor – but, sorry – (hic) no advertising! Unlike the US of A where alcohol advertising has “regulatory bodies” that create standards for ethical advertising and where the concern is ‘where’ the ads are placed (mostly in media streams viewed by 70% of the audience over the drinking age) here it’s a blanket ban with no ifs, buts, why’s … When pressed, the general response (please don’t have a cardiac arrest, laughing!) is: it’s unconstitutional to propagate evil habits injurious to health and a bad influence to society. All the celebs interviewed – with the exception of the cool and gorgeously opinionated Pooja Bedi – were of the collective belief that this move was the biggest farce ever; a totally hollow, ludicrous, cosmetic and cockeyed, completely self-defeating in both intent and purpose. In today’s liberated and globalised times, with India celebrating economic prowess and quality of life at par with the West, this brain dead vetoing of publicity of a product category which is a way of life for India’s well-healed, sophisticated, aspirational constituency but freely allowing manufa

cture to scoop up titanic amounts of revenue for the exchequer, tantamounts to an epic hypocritical joke! Here’s what the heavy weights have to say …

Ad-Guru & Theatre Maestro Alyque Padamse is first off the block and takes off with all cylinders firing! “Either make Prohibition work or allow the advertising of liquor. The Government must stop this childish and absurd dilly-dallying and decide one way or the other. In today’s life and times, liquor is a part of young people’s lives and no social event is complete without it. How many kids have tea, coffee or cola’s after 8 pm? C’mon wake up and taste the … stuff! The same goes for Cigarettes. If the powers that are had any guts they would ban the manufacture of these products – not the advertising. Isn’t it amazing that they have messages like SMOKING KILLS on cigarette packs and yet these products roll out in billions of units everyday? But then Delhi is notorious for its double-think!” Film-maker Shyam Benegal agrees. “It’s so hypocritical and doesn’t make any sense at all! They don’t ban the name or the brand but just the idea it is liquor and do a quick surrogate advertising number – Kingfisher Mineral Water, Bagpiper Soda … whatever. And the argument that it will tempt the poor is silly because this segment does not connect with IMFL brands and hence advertising affecting them is a non-starter argument”. Actor & Anchor Kabir Bedi goes along this line of thinking, but with a tiny proviso. “I agree with Alyque & Shyam that while advertising should certainly be allowed, one should ensure that it shouldn’t be consciously created in a manner that it makes drinking a fashion statement or a glamorous recreation for the kids and have-nots. We know the power of clever advertising and the influence it can wield as a force of seduction. So, basically I am advocating Responsible Advertising”.

Film actor Jackie Shroff believes that there should be no ban on advertising of liquor as people are sensible enough to understand what is right and wrong. They know what is good or bad for their health and they should be allowed to use their head and heart to make the decision. Film star Sohail Khan agrees and adds that it is indeed extremely hypocritical of the government to ban liquor ads and yet allow their production. “If they are so concerned they should ban manufacture too”. However, he candidly admits that he would love to be a brand ambassador for a liquor brand if invited …

Hi-profile, iconoclast Prahlad Kakkar – as always – shoots from the hip. He laughs away the whole issue with “but booze advertising is hitting the TV all the time in surrogate avtaar!” He believes that one of the big problems is that it gives established brands a huge – and unfair – advantage over new brands. McDowell, Kingfisher, Officers Choice, in any other (soda, mineral water) form is instantly identified. Any dumbo knows what you are driving at … but the new ones get hit badly”. Kakkar believes that (like the West) the zillions accrued by the government in excise from booze sale could well be invested in good, effective communication towards educating the public – especially the kids – about drinking responsibly. “Look what an amazing job they did with tobacco! Today if you go there and start puffing away in someone’s house, you will be looked upon as an outcast! There are spaces reserved for smokers and public puffing is not considered sexy anymore”. However, he adds, that “when law-makers and the establishment are themselves hand-in-glove with the booze-makers in states where prohibition exists, what do you expect?” Free-spirited Pooja Bedi wraps up the debate in her own style, rooting for the ban, “I think the ban is fine because stuff like tobacco and alcohol are not known to work wonders for mind, body or soul! After all advertising is about making a product desirable, attractive and sexy to the consumer, pushing hard on the purchase intent, right? Sure it is not illegal like drugs but hey, it’s not exactly what the doc ordered for health. Sure, guys who want to drink will drink, but banning advertising will (in some small way) reduce the consumption among the vulnerable, impressionable types”.
 

IS THE LIQUOR ADVERTISING BAN JUSTIFIED?