The on-going Rin versus Tide public spat has taken ‘comparative’ advertising to a newer, more dangerous level.

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Some label it ethical & cool, while many use adjectives like outrageous & unethical to explain this shift. what’s with this new trend of combative and in-your-face name-calling? a check-out.

In the beginning came innocence. The grass was green, the sky was blue and God above sat smiling at his blissfully contented creations… man, beast, nature, products. But over time, frown-lines replaced the divine smile, and the pleasant sounds gave way to cacophony! Life below was getting complicated at a fast pace, and peace was fast becoming a word of the past, as more and more mortals were earning the ‘consumer’ tag! Worse, for sellers, the tool of ‘slander’ remained the only one to project their offerings in a better light that their counterparts’; and thus comparative advertising was born.

The basic thrust of this genre was to highlight product differentiations in an exciting, entertaining and imaginative manner, designed to impact the prospect’s mindset (no matter how marginally) towards a shift in perspective, triggering-off a purchase intent. Today, champions of this mode of advertising believe that differentiation is indeed the foundation of good marketing and compelling differentiation, the hallmark of a great brand. But when eccentricity seeps in, it becomes a double-edged sword. Why? Because, it tends to undermine both, the confidence and appeal of the brand in question – so handle with care!

Critics however lambast this form of communication, branding it a pathetic example of poorly done advertising, symptomatic of “lazy creativity and lazy creative thinking. If it is blindly pursued, it only goes to prove that the company wanted to make its way round the process of seeking unique consumer insights, the foundation of a great brand idea and a solid consumer proposition. Finally’ in these silly, childish, exhibitionistic skirmishes played out in full public glare, one tends to forget who started the spat, who ended it and what the fight was all about! Besides, in these sensation-seeking times, public memory is woefully short and before long, it only becomes the next big “tamasha”!

Ad-watchers believe that this genre really took shape and impacted popular imagination with the well-recalled Coke v/s Pepsi face-off in US, during the 1970s. The audacious and hugely innovative Pepsi, achieved a startling breakthrough in the world of comparative advertising, when it had the guts to re-position the much-loved, iconic and established family beverage Coke as “My Father’s drink” and Pepsi as “The choice of youth…a new generation! Years later, Pepsi India threw a credible punch back at Coke, welcoming Coke to India in a masterstroke of a creative line: “Coke & Coca-cola are trademarks of the Coca-Cola Company. Pepsi is the choice of a new generation!” Point taken.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Early 2009 was a watershed of sorts for India’s ad-land. Over the last few months, six honchos of leading agencies

– JWT, Leo Burnett, DDB Mudra and Grey – had quit their cushy jobs and dived into their respective entrepreneurial journeys to stake their claims to fame. many scoffed, some sniggered and a few even laughed-out-loud. But no one’s laughing now. the renegades, with their nimbler set-ups have snatched away some big clients from their muscled counterparts and are dreaming of more... new paradigms are being set in India’s ad-world. Catch them first with 4ps B&M’s Surbhi Chawla & Neha Saraiya...

Having meandered through life, trying to sell everything – from Carrier ACs to his soul – Calcutta-born and bred Malayalee Brijesh Jacob decided to settle for a career in advertising. The pay wasn’t good, but he took the decision more to escape Calcutta’s merciless heat, which any ‘selling’ job invariably involved. Jacob was lucky. A few years later – during which he ran through many agencies, a Mass Comm. diploma and a shift to Mumbai – Jacob landed the top creative job at Grey Worldwide. For most, it would have been a time to rejoice, let their hair down and lose themselves in the bliss of a cushy life! Not for Jacob. He gave up his snug job in August last year with the intent to start his own restaurant chain. But life had other plans. It January 2009, Brijesh met Deepak Nair and Vinod Moolacherry and now partners with them in not one but two ad agencies of their own – 22 Feet (digital agency) and White Canvas (full-service agency). While the foundations for White Canvas were laid three years ago, 22 Feet is the new infant in his arms. “We felt that there was no ‘creative’ online agency in India, at least one that went beyond virals,” shares Jacob.

Jagdish Acharya is another advertising stalwart who recently embarked on his entrepreneurial journey, leaving a 15-year stint as creative head at Mudra DDB. Although he launched his agency in January this year, the groundwork started sometime ago. K. D. Singh, Chairman, Alchemist Group, had invited him for a ‘friendly’ second opinion on the creative strategy for his brand, Republic of Chicken. “At the meeting I was intensely speaking my mind and suddenly he said ‘why don’t you start your own agency. Take my account for starter and I need the New Year campaign coming from you,” says Acharya. That was end-November. The next thing Acharya knew was launching that agency and bagging Republic of Chicken as his first account. His small outfit has no office. The team is encouraged to work from home whenever they are at their creative peak. A virtual office, he feels, cuts out the formality and hence the name Cut The Crap for his agency.

Unlike Brijesh and Jagdish, not everyone goes for a swim without testing waters first. And that’s was Sukumar Menon’s approach when he floated Black Swan. He first thought of his own independent agency in January 2008, but he simply let it drift. “I was uncomfortable about leaving my comfort zone. There comes a stage in most careers where people either buy into the system or develop a new belief system. Though I was sure that I didn’t want to choose the former, it was difficult to cut the umbilical chord,” he explains. Then one day, Sukumar got an offer from an old friend, and that’s when he made up his mind to go on his own.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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