From Pan Bahar masala to Patanjali, controversies have kept the advertising world on its toes
Brands in 2016 did not fail to make a big splash. Some even made a bigger splash by getting into a lot of controversy for their campaigns. While some of the brands created controversies on social media, others got into issues with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI).
Here are some of the brands that courted controversy in 2016 through their ad campaigns.
- Pan Bahar’s Bond: The ad campaign which featured James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan created quite a stir on social media sites and even led to the actor apologising for the ad. The ad showed the actor in his popular spy avatar fighting in bad buys and all the while carrying the pan masala carton. While several had a good laugh with the ad, there were several others left shocked and angry as to Brosnan’s endorsement of brand which is said to be injurious to health.
- Patanjali’s success secrets: The Baba Ramdev-led brand has been in conflict with ASCI since the whole year as its ads have time and again been pulled up by the ad self-regulatory body for showing its competitor companies in bad light. Some of the Patanjali ads which ASCI pulled up include its ‘Kanchi Ghani Mustard Oil’, Dant Kanti, Jeera Buscuits, Kesh Kanti, among other product ads of the company. The fight has now reached the High Court where Patanjali contests ASCI’s right as an advertising regulatory body and alleges that it is backed by international FMCG companies.
- MobiKwik’s surgical ad strike: The mobile wallet and recharge company ran into trouble when trying to play on the topicality of the Surgical Strikes conducted by the Indian Army on terrorist launch pads in Pakistan. The company like some others had offered its customers discounts by using the code ‘SURGICALSTRIKE’. However, this had created an uproar with people on social media for trying to derive cheap publicity from the issue. There were other brands such as Burger Singh and Smaaash that offered similar discounts to their customers.
- Snapdeal with Aamir’s Dil Ki Deal: It wasn’t the ‘Dil Ki Deal’ campaign which got the brand into trouble, but the actor’s comments on ‘intolerism’ in India that created a stir among twitterati and on social media sites. Many uninstalled the apps and threatened that they would boycott the e-commerce site. The brand in the end succumbed to the pressure and did not renew the contract with Aamir as the brand ambassador.
- Reliance Jio and Paytm’s Digital India ad: While both the ads were a few months apart, the ads were similar in nature and made use of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image without permission for their campaign. Reliance Jio had used it for its launch in September and had announced their support for PM Modi’s ‘Digital India’ initiative. Paytm did the same in November when demonetization move was announced by the government. Both these brands received flak from people on social media and a possible penalisation by the government.
- Thums Up to no more taste Salman’s thunder: The curtains closed for actor Salman Khan and his association with Thums Up. The brand chose not to renew the contract with the star. He had made controversial comments time and again during the year which led to people criticising the actor and his actions. This was in spite of him being acquitted from the two legal cases.
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