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<ul><li>Controversies have always been a part of the advertising industry and the year 2021 was no different.</li><li>The year was full of ups and downs and a lot of brands landed in trouble for hurting religious sentiments through their campaigns.</li><li>We look at the year gone by and some brand controversies that erupted in India.</li></ul>2021 was bitter-sweet for the Indian advertising industry. This year gave us beautiful campaigns such as Cadbury’s remake of the famous stadium ad with the wonderful jingle Kuch Khaas hai, CRED’s Indiranagar Ka Gunda that still continues to appear in memes on the internet, Bhima’s Pure as Love ad that challenged the status quo, to mention a few. However, it was also a year full of controversies. Many brands landed themselves in trouble and numerous campaigns had to be pulled off. It is not too difficult today for a small tweet to snowball into a boycott trend, something that is every marketers’ and agency’s nightmare. At the same time, when brands have a presence on social media, they start having an opinion or a voice. If brands err on the side of caution, they are simply selling products to consumers and not engaging with them on a personal level. There will always be users who support the brand for standing up and fighting for causes they believe in but there will also be those who would oppose them at the slightest disagreement. GenZ is also becoming increasingly aware of how advertising works and is able to separate grey from black. They view brands as a form of self-expression and to connect with them, brands are also expected to go beyond just selling their products. They are known to connect with brands that they feel are socially and environmentally conscious. So, while many experts advise brands to steer clear of religious topics or make any political statements, there’s also pressure on brands and companies to take firm stands on issues that matter to these young consumers. As brands try to find the balance between making the right statement and offending a majority in the coming year, here are a few brands who found themselves in troubled waters this year: Manyavar Bridal wear brand Mohey had released a commercial that aimed to offer a fresh perspective to the Hindu wedding ritual 'Kanyadaan.' With its campaign featuring Alia Bhatt, Mohey promoted women empowerment and gave a more gender-sensitive touch to the age-old tradition of ‘Kanyandaan’ in Hindu weddings and insisted on bringing in ‘Kanyamaan’ instead. “Through the film, Mohey’s brand ambassador Alia Bhatt questions the conventional beliefs that require a daughter to conform to being ‘given away’ at her wedding. She makes a choice on her wedding day to rethink rituals, stating what Kanyadaan means in modern times, making it more equal and progressive for her present and future generations,” explained its press release. However, this campaign did not sit well with Twitter users. It flared up a controversy on social media and the hashtag #BoycottManyavar started trending on Twitter. The trolls slammed the ad for mocking Hindu traditions. <div type="Youtube" id="PmCSjllj7KU" title="Tradition wahi, soch nayi - #KanyaMaan" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/PmCSjllj7KU/mqdefault.jpg"></div> Cadbury beef row Mondelez India had found itself in a soup too after a few screenshots surfaced on Twitter suggesting that its Cadbury Dairy Milk may contain gelatine derived from beef. Trolls were quick to call for a boycott on all Mondelez products but some users even pointed out that the screenshot being shared is that of Cadbury Australia’s website. <div type="twitter" handle="DairyMilkIn" handlename="Cadbury Dairy Milk" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1327255370444668928/1NjkNhJE_normal.jpg" favoritecount="963" retweetcount="241" status="https://t.co/798qgPozsF" createdat="1626616484000" id="1416758336909840387"></div> The chocolate and snacks giant later clarified that its products in India are all vegetarian. It said that the screenshots circulated were of the company’s products sold overseas. FabIndia Clothing brand FabIndia was criticised for its collection named 'Jashn-e-Riwaaz.' Twitterati alleged that the campaign purposely tried to hurt religious sentiments by associating the name ‘Jashn-e-Riwaaz’ with Diwali, a Hindu festival. They even had a problem with women not wearing their badges of being married such as bindis, bangles and sindoor. Tejasvi Surya, MP and National President of the BJP Yuva Morcha had tweeted, “Deepavali is not Jash-e-Riwaaz. This deliberate attempt of abrahamisation of Hindu festivals, depicting models without traditional Hindu attires, must be called out. Brands like Fabindia must face economic costs for such deliberate misadventures.” Soon after that tweet, FabIndia deleted its post across social media and renamed its collection to ‘Jilmil-si-Diwali.’ Sabyasachi The designer brand was trolled heavily for allegedly hurting religious sentiments by promoting their ‘Royal Bengal Mangalsutra,’ which is a part of their Intimate Fine Jewellery line. The ace designer behind it, <keyword id="7202" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sabyasachi-mukherjee" source="Orion">Sabyasachi Mukherjee</keyword>, decided to withdraw the campaign after it triggered an avalanche of online trolling for hurting religious sentiments. He retracted his campaign after Madhya Pradesh’s Home Minister Narottam Mishra issued a "24-hour ultimatum" and threatened to send the "police force." <div type="image" title="Sabya and mangalsutra ads" msid="88322071" hostid="261"></div> Dabur’s Fem In the same week, Dabur’s Fem Cream Bleach advertisement stirred a boycott trend for showing a same-sex couple celebrating the Hindu festival of Karva Chauth. <div type="Youtube" id="-yu4_BIPkXU" title="Fem Ad on Karwa Chauth | Dabur Fem Controversial Ad | Viral Video" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-yu4_BIPkXU/mqdefault.jpg"></div> CEAT CEAT Tyres was criticised for an ad featuring Aamir Khan in which the actor was seen advising people not to burst crackers on Diwali. <div type="Youtube" id="wm4kOghHQ24" title="Switch to CEAT SecuraDrive | Aamir Khan- Cricket" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wm4kOghHQ24/mqdefault.jpg"></div> Zomato Zomato landed in a controversy in October after a customer from Tamil Nadu alleged he was denied a refund for a missing item in his order as he didn't know the ‘national language’ Hindi. Soon, a massive backlash followed on Twitter with many slamming the food delivery app for imposing Hindi on its customers. This also led to hashtags "Reject_Zomato" and "ZomatoSpeakTamil" trending on top. Fortune oil When Sourav Ganguly, BCCI President and Former India Cricket Captain, suffered a mild heart attack in January, netizens happened to re-discover his old ad endorsing Fortune's Cooking Oil. It then triggered a slew of tweets and jokes with people questioning the effectiveness of the oil and also wondering how the brand will tackle this crisis. <div type="twitter" handle="arifaajakia" handlename="Arif Aajakia" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1463855466463862798/ZR5EoEHM_normal.jpg" favoritecount="161" retweetcount="13" status="Dada, get well soon. We love you. You are a tiger, you will come back roaring. @SGanguly99 https://t.co/F5rkPAlmNE" createdat="1609734280000" id="1345949241093586946"></div> On Valentine’s day this year, the brand published an honest print ad clarifying that there are many factors that can affect our heart's health. Adani Wilmar’s Fortune rice bran cooking oil was the only brand that did not bow down to trolls. <div type="twitter" handle="FortuneFoods" handlename="Fortune Foods" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1230878437541371904/69ad0EW2_normal.jpg" favoritecount="15" retweetcount="2" status="Dada made a healthy comeback, as he always does! Here's a 'heart' felt message from him on Valentine's Day. Let's h… https://t.co/Je2cGatoz8" createdat="1613277036000" id="1360808636755320837"></div>

From Manyavar’s Kanyadaan to Cadbury’s beef row, here are a few brands that found themselves in trouble in 2021

<ul><li><keyword id="6398864" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mondelez">Mondelez</keyword> India found itself in a soup on Sunday after a few screenshots surfaced on Twitter suggesting that its Cadbury Dairy Milk may contain gelatine derived from beef.</li><li>Cadbury was quick to respond to its row over beef in chocolates clarifying that the screenshots circulated on social media were of the company’s international products and all its Indian products are vegetarian.</li><li>We speak to brand and PR experts to discuss Cadbury’s crisis management strategy and what else should the brand do to win back consumer trust.</li></ul>After screenshots suggesting that Mondelez's Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolates may contain gelatine derived from beef surfaced on social media platforms in India on Sunday, Mondelez India took to Twitter to clarify that its products in India are all vegetarian. It said that the screenshots circulated were of the company’s products sold overseas. Trolls were quick to call for a boycott on all Mondelez products but some users even pointed out that the screenshot being shared is that of Cadbury Australia’s website. <div type="twitter" handle="DairyMilkIn" handlename="Cadbury Dairy Milk" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1327255370444668928/1NjkNhJE_normal.jpg" favoritecount="868" retweetcount="230" status="https://t.co/798qgPozsF" createdat="1626616484000" id="1416758336909840387"></div> After issuing a public statement to soften the uproar, Mondelez decided to respond to all tweets with its official statement mentioning that the green dot on its wrapper signifies that it is 100% vegetarian. However, instead of engaging with the internet users one-on-one and addressing their queries, Cadbury decided to use its templatized statement everywhere. Sharing the best ways to tackle such crisis, particularly when the brand may not be at fault, or ‘has a plausible and believable counter-point to quell the crux of the crisis,’ Social Media Expert and Independent Communications Consultant, Karthik Srinivasan said, “Do not use stock statements and plaster it as a reply to anyone and everyone. Prioritise a few top voices who are causing maximum damage and engage with them contextually and in the form of a conversation on the medium they are active in. This requires good social media monitoring tools (to ascertain who are the top voices causing or worthy of causing most damage) and a cross-functional team consisting of PR and communications (agency and client-side) and Legal. Most importantly, this group needs to be empowered to take decisions in real-time in terms of the brand holding a conversation with its detractors online.” Dilip Cherian, Consulting Partner, Perfect Relations advised looking through the company’s Owned Media first. He said, "Responding a little late, triggers a little panic but eventually, all seems to have been well. It could also be useful for Cadburys to recognize that going forward having more details of its India-specific process and the safety factor need to be built into it. India market product specs could be emphasized on its Owned Media. This is something that we at Perfect Relations have been advocating quite strongly in recent times. With the rise of fake news and it's tremors, the most obvious place for customers or trigger happy influencers all look through the company’s Owned Media. Cadburys need to check even now whether it's India site is strong enough to tackle it's possible problems. To my mind, that's where we should start.” Many brands have become a victim of boycott culture on social media lately and a lot of them bow down and maintain a low profile to cushion the blow. Cadbury decided to address the concerns and face the situation head-on. Gone are the days where a brand could hope for this to die a natural death and wait for consumers to move on. A small trend can snowball, and a little ignorance can lead to a huge amount of audience permanently boycotting a brand. At the same time, logic dictates that brands should not get involved in arguments or low blows since it tends to feed the trolls. Suggesting the best way out of this, Tarunjeet Rattan, Managing Partner, Nucleus PR said, “A measured response is the best route. However, the mark of the measure can only be decided by the brand based on their consumer profile and industry segment.” She said that when a brand finds itself in a PR crisis such as Cadbury, it should go all out on social media. Sharing how Cadbury can further fix the damage caused, Rattan added, “Add Linkedin to the mix so that they can get Corporate Inc behind them. Engage with editorial media to help them share their side of the story with an interesting bite or two sprinkled with nuts and nuggets (no pun intended). Create a statement that goes up on their website and social media pages along with a newsletter sent out to all internal and external stakeholders. Reach out to fact-checking websites/handles and ask them to do their own checks and put it out. Add a dose of sweet humour (in true Cadbury style) by engaging reel influencers and use it as an opportunity to turn this into positive PR for them.” <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="You snooze, you lose" text="You snooze, you lose">You snooze, you lose</cmsannotation> Cherian said that a company should get back to its trolls on Twitter in less than an hour. "Companies, in today's hyper-connected world, can get trolled cancelled or boycotted swiftly, for all the right reasons. But what really constitutes a crisis, and one that strikes from the outfield is when it's totally based on wrong reasons. Cadburys has fallen victim to a classic case of this with the wildcard allegation that its chocolates manufactured in India had beef components in them. There is an element of mischief here but by those trying to create a sensation to ride out with. Speed is the most important ingredient in managing a crisis of this kind given that these issues have been dealt with multiple times before. So, there is no reason why there should be anything even close to an hour's delay in getting back on mischievous tweets that sought to cause commercial and customer confusion. The fact that the company chose to clarify directly to the person pushing the offending tweet is good. But at Perfect Relations, we'd have opted for a quicker but generic tweet. That I believe would have been even better. And the time factor needs to be taken into account. We now live in a 24x7 world and crisis can erupt anywhere at any time. There is no time to pause to ponder and prevaricate. Pushing out the right message very quickly is essential. In my view, Cadburys did manage to stem rubbish from expanding. But some hits were hurting," said Cherian. Srinivasan also said that if a crisis begins and perpetuates on social media, the conversations on Twitter need to be quick and in real-time. “Delays in reacting to specific questions could make it seem like the brand has something to hide. A brand handle on social media is just that - a brand handle, without a human voice. So when trying to add a factual counterpoint, it would be better to name a credible, verifiable (LinkedIn'able!) individual as the person behind the counter-point.” <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Personalisation" text="Personalisation">Personalisation</cmsannotation> When Fortune Oil got caught in a crisis earlier this year, after its brand ambassador Sourav Ganguly suffered a mild heart attack, it immediately released a statement asserting that it would continue to work with Ganguly. After a few days, it launched a personalised print ad penned by its ambassador Ganguly to clarify that there are multiple reasons that can affect one’s heart's health. In Cadbury’s case, it is just a note from brand’s official Twitter page and Srinivasan pointed out that ‘when sharing a factual response as a stock statement, who says it matters. For instance, if the response being used by Cadbury now was attributed to the India CEO, that would carry more weight.’ Due to the vastness of information available on social media, a lot of such crises come and go. Add to it people's perpetually decreasing attention spans. However, a Google search can still bring up stories around such controversies with just one search which could result in people changing their minds about a particular product. So, durable brands, FMCG or luxury brands need to be extra careful while handling a ‘small’ PR crisis. Srinivasan added, “It is important to put forward the brand's counterpoint impactfully so that future readers see both sides of the controversy and are able to make up their mind unambiguously.” He is sure that Mondelez will pull a ‘Maggi’<a href="https://twitter.com/beastoftraal/status/1416989779460190208"> and hire a big celebrity </a>to cover the damage and communicate how safe their products are. For its future communication, Rattan advised, “On a consistent basis, it should keep talking about safety and hygiene. Cadbury is not new to this and has faced a crisis before. But they stopped talking about hygiene in their overall campaigns once the immediate threat was overcome. Brand conversations that touch upon safety and hygiene must be a standard and not a crisis response, especially for a brand consumed by all ages including children. Keep hammering it and then some.”

Cadbury row over beef: Was Mondelez’s crisis management strategy convincing enough to win back its consumers' trust?

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From Manyavar’s Kanyadaan to Cadbury’s beef row, here are a few brands that found themselves in trouble in 2021

Karuna Sharma

Cadbury row over beef: Was Mondelez’s crisis management strategy convincing enough to win back its consumers' trust?

Karuna Sharma

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