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<ul><li><keyword id="6359039" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="sourav-ganguly">Sourav Ganguly</keyword>, BCCI President and Former India Cricket Captain, suffered a mild heart attack last month.</li><li>Netizens happened to re-discover his old ad endorsing Fortune's Cooking Oil, which 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. </li><li>On Valentine’s day, the brand published an honest print ad clarifying that there are many factors that can affect our heart's health.</li><li>We speak to PR experts to find out if communication like this is enough to win audiences over. </li></ul>After BCCI President and Former India Cricket Captain Sourav Ganguly suffered a mild heart attack in January 2021, Adani Wilmar’s Fortune rice bran cooking oil, that is endorsed by Ganguly, got caught in the middle of the crisis. Twitterati had re-discovered Ganguly’s old ad with Fortune Oil that said it is ‘a healthy for heart oil’ and the irony was not lost on people. They were also quick to jump to the conclusion that Fortune oil is unhealthy and its old ad even started making rounds on WhatsApp. To soften the uproar coming in its way, Fortune Oil deleted the ad from its official website and social media handles. It had also immediately released a media statement asserting that it would continue to work with Ganguly. <div type="twitter" handle="arifaajakia" handlename="Arif Aajakia" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1335345211610963969/_YB6QF_R_normal.jpg" favoritecount="191" retweetcount="18" 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> <div type="twitter" handle="aliusmani" handlename="AYU" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1335760850393526272/u2_LBHPy_normal.jpg" favoritecount="1" retweetcount="0" status="@beastoftraal WhatsApp forwards are already making rounds 😀😀 https://t.co/ouMXMTxcwW" createdat="1609678780000" id="1345716459503161344"></div> Post that, netizens, including brand experts and consumers, had eyes on Fortune’s next move for it was going to take a lot of come out of this huge PR crisis and win its consumers’ trust back. As an FMCG brand that caters to a mass audience, how do you deal with this cloud of resentment coming your way on social media? Fortune Oil has given us a case study with its latest move. On Valentine’s Day, when the whole brandverse got mushy and there were hearts splashed across the newspaper ads, Adani Wilmar decided to have a heart-to-heart conversation with fans. 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. <div type="twitter" handle="FortuneFoods" handlename="Fortune Foods" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1230878437541371904/69ad0EW2_normal.jpg" favoritecount="10" 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> Titled, ‘Today seems like a good day to talk about the heart,’ the body copy read, "You don't expect a fairly young and fit person like me to have a heart-related ailment. But here's the thing, there are just too many factors that can affect our heart's health. One of them could be family history of heart ailments, as it was in my case." It further shared a few tips to keep one’s heart-healthy. In a personalised note, Ganguly openly talked about his heart condition and what consumers can learn from his episode. “Love your heart. Take good care of it,” he concluded. Fortune Oil appointed Ganguly as its brand face in 2020 to target mid-age people with its campaign ‘Welcome to the 40s,' which aimed to promote maintaining heart health and good lifestyle. The campaign backfired a year later and it was a blow hard to forget. However, when a brand faces a huge crisis related to their brand ambassadors such as this, the traditional PR advice is to maintain a low profile to cushion the blow. Adani Wilmar, on the other hand, decided to address the concerns and face the situation head-on. It also waited for the right amount of time to launch a piece of communication -- long enough to give its consumers some space to process the news and but not too long before it is a distant memory. And it seems to have won brand experts admiration. Albeit, will a brand ambassador coming to bat for a brand and talk about the health benefits it serves, be enough to regain its consumers' trust? Here is what experts had to say: Dilip Cherian, Founder and Partner, Perfect Relations: <div type="image" title="Dilip-Cherian1" msid="80928599" hostid="261"></div> There is no doubt that some response would have been expected from any consumer products company which is also substantially consumer-facing. So I guess, Fortune really didn’t have too much of a choice or perhaps was facing image pressures to explain its stance. This actually is one of the huge consequences of having an extremely popular and visible brand ambassador. The price you have to pay is often that, anything that happens to the ambassador actually happens to the company. So rather than entering a situation where a stent within the company would be necessary, I think that responding was smart. Opting for a print advertisement allowed the company to actually communicate at many levels. As we tell our clients today, owned media and paid media can be multiplied appropriately to reach the audiences you want in the ways you want. Taking a print advertisement was only one of the options. It could easily have been addressed far more cheaply and just as effectively by having this content put on the Fortune website. Would it have worked? The answer is yes, if properly promoted. Owned media can very often play the role that conventional media has played in recent times. This is one of the huge advantages that we have been able to get companies involved in understanding during the year of lockdown. Now that the advertisement is out, clever digital manipulation and propagation is the answer if that is done then the point will be well taken amongst many more stakeholders than just those who happened to read the print copy. The lessons a brand can learn from this are quite clear. There is no doubt that large consumer facing brands need to be conscious of who they choose as a brand ambassador and recognise that along with huge gains come the pains. The second lesson would be that responding is smarter than smarting in silence. Third lesson is that using your owned media would have been infinitely cheaper as a means of responding. Lesson four, clever use of social media and aggressive use of traditional media can very often multiply what you choose to put out on owned media. Archana Jain, Managing Director, PR pundit <div type="image" title="Archana Jain - Horizontal" msid="80932970" hostid="261"></div> There is no 'one size fits all' strategic response in a crisis; two identical scenarios can have different responses as they may be taking place at two different times, in two different domains, or with varied company cultures. A crisis always merits a response – as they say, 'Feed the shark before it feeds on you!" The key points to have got across swiftly would have been on how the company feels about the incident as its important to be humanly concerned, first, last and foremost. A lesson that brands can learn from this: When good health is the claim, it’s important to monitor the health of the brand ambassador just like insurance companies do each year of the insured. This was capture in the T of the HEART message in the advertisement Tarunjeet Rattan, Founder and Managing Partner, Nucleus and Co-founder of PRPOI <div type="image" title="Tarunjeet Pr" msid="80932780" hostid="261"></div> Absolutely, it was a good strategy. In fact, they should have done that when Sourav first got the attack. If I recall correctly a lot of personal branding experts at that point of time had recommended that Sourav drop the brand. On the other hand, they also urged the brand to take a stand and leverage this opportunity to educate everyone on the various causes of a heart attack. Fortune shied away from it at that point. To me, that was an opportunity lost. What if Sourav had not recovered. It would have ensured the loss of customer trust forever. Good that he did, and it gave the brand an opportunity to address it. It is great to see them take this up now and in such a sweet and toned down manner. In today's day and age, it does not work if you choose to lie low. Apart from it being a wasted opportunity to connect with your audience, the silence will backfire. Crisis needs to be addressed head-on with a smart strategy when the fires are the hottest. I do believe they've hit the sweet spot with a heartfelt message and on an appropriate day. Using a single medium is in line with their cautionary wait &amp; watch approach. Not too massive but at the same time reaching just about enough audiences. What I am sure they would have anticipated and counted on was that the same branding experts who pulled them up for not addressing the crisis earlier would be impressed enough or have an opinion either way to give them more space on their social media real estate. Lo and behold ! It worked out just as planned. Some lessons that brands can learn from this crisis and its management: Never ever waste a good crisis. Every crisis is an opportunity in disguise so use it. When you do choose to address it make sure you are aware of the circumstances around the crisis so that you can choose the right medium for the message. This awareness will help you use your budget wisely. Amplification is essential. Identify the people and channels who will be most apt for it before deciding on your response. Respond to a crisis with facts and a lot of empathy. A situation like this would have worked really well for the brand and earned it a lot of goodwill if it had stood by its brand ambassador on the day of the heart attack. Be human. Whether now or later …whether the individual is your brand ambassador or not…being human won’t hurt you. It will only earn you loyalty points and love. Don’t make outright claims that you cannot control. They will come back to haunt you. Temper all claims with a dose of reality. Akshaara Lalwani, Founder and CEO of Communicate India: <div type="image" title="Akshaara Lalwani, Founder, Communicate India pic 1" msid="80928629" hostid="261"></div> Firstly, we have to understand Mr. Sourav Ganguly’s case wasn’t an anomaly. Scores of athletes and sportspersons across the world have had heart attacks when in the prime of their careers and lives. So this really was an unexpected event in terms of public relations because Sourav Ganguly was always the right fit for the brand and he is a national treasure, but it was just unfortunate that this happened to him. Having said this, from a PR perspective, when something like this happens, conventional wisdom does suggest that a brand lie low, retract all their communication and pull out adverts, as was the case with Fortune. This is understandable because no brand would not want to alienate its customers or lose out on revenue. However, we have to understand that we’re part of a more evolved digital economy today and that a brand need not necessarily hide behind a crisis. Bringing the issue to the forefront and addressing it head-on, is the best suited strategy for a modern PR and communications landscape. Without being insensitive to a brand ambassador’s health situation, it is an opportune moment to reiterate messaging around heart health eating and the importance of eating well and living well. This is not to say that a brand should use someone's misfortune to push sales and marketing, but it is about communicating and engaging with customers in an honest manner, and telling them that the risk of heart attacks is real for everyone. In a crisis situation like this, there has to be an acute understanding of brand sentiment and a two-way-communication model has to be adopted. Customers and brands need to work together to identify messages because at the end of the day, customers understand risks of a product and it is the duty of any company to educate its customers about these risks. Making the customer your partner and working in a symbiotic relationship is the key. Therefore it isn’t advisable to have a knee-jerk reaction of retracting communication and adverts during an unprecedented situation like this. In fact, creating honest communication, addressing the situation directly, and working through issues is advisable. It’s all about responding to your customer and providing them with the most correct, accurate, and valuable information.

After Fortune Foods' recent PR crisis after Sourav Ganguly's heart attack, is the brand’s latest print campaign enough to win back its consumers' trust?

<ul><li>BCCI President and former India cricket captain <keyword id="6359039" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="sourav-ganguly">Sourav Ganguly</keyword> suffered a mild <keyword id="6357661" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="heart-attack">heart attack</keyword> last Saturday.</li><li>Ganguly is now said to be stable. However, while many were concerned about the player's health, many re-discovered his old ad endorsing <keyword id="27145" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Fortune">Fortune</keyword>'s <keyword id="985011" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="rice-bran-oil">Rice Bran Oil</keyword> which 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 now.</li></ul>BCCI President and former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly suffered a mild heart attack last Saturday and had to undergo an angioplasty to clear a blocked coronary artery. The news triggered widespread concern and led to fans showering the former captain with wishes and prayers. Ganguly is now said to be stable. However, over the weekend, someone also noticed an ad that Ganguly had worked on for <keyword id="236770" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Adani-Wilmar">Adani Wilmar</keyword>’s Fortune rice bran oil. The tagline for the campaign read, ‘Dada bole welcome to the 40s’. He is the brand ambassador for Fortune oils and as well as its soya chunks. <div type="twitter" handle="pj77in" handlename="Pankaj Jain" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1049646397731950592/yqZlZ_aJ_normal.jpg" favoritecount="2969" retweetcount="658" status="Should you trust Adani's Fortune ? https://t.co/mRc5x4yraA" createdat="1609609764000" id="1345426984688500737"></div> <div type="Youtube" id="bV4ztqQYsTc" title="Switch to Fortune Soya Chunks | Protein-rich and Untouched by Hand" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bV4ztqQYsTc/mqdefault.jpg"></div> Now while this ad is from April 2020, a viewer pointed that the ad showing Ganguly endorsing its rice bran oil was aired even during the weekend, leaving many on Twitter amused while others pointing out the irony. <div type="twitter" handle="abhinavdiaries" handlename="abhinav pathak ⏳📚" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/971343949972590592/-LeiAWUD_normal.jpg" favoritecount="0" retweetcount="0" status="Remembering the ad, “40 ke ho gye to kya jeena chhod doge”, I wonder the condition of the brand manager of Fortune… https://t.co/60lqlSSCGD" createdat="1609601513000" id="1345392378140508160"></div> <div type="twitter" handle="vlp1994" handlename="Vinesh Prabhu" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1345660094806016000/v0DYKvY9_normal.jpg" favoritecount="5" retweetcount="0" status="I remember Dada doing a commercial of Fortune Oil and talking about heart health and how you need to careful about… https://t.co/X0WKWIus38" createdat="1609577278000" id="1345290727014612992"></div> The re-discovery of the ad also led to a slew of memes and Whatsapp forwards. <div type="twitter" handle="ParryRamMe" handlename="Bourbon Naxal" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1314878559295397890/uQiorXxx_normal.jpg" favoritecount="0" retweetcount="0" status="Will be interesting to see how #Fortune oil brand will now use their ambassador Sourav Ganguly given that their o… https://t.co/h69gsNxVSt" createdat="1609674863000" id="1345700028292087811"></div> On what the brand could do when it is finding itself in this crisis, for no apparent fault of their own, communications strategy consultant Karthik Srinivasan in his tweets advised removing the ads as a first step. <div type="twitter" handle="beastoftraal" handlename="Karthik" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1140493276316745734/WH-6N17h_normal.jpg" favoritecount="93" retweetcount="24" status="Is Fortune Foods' Oil division working on a crisis response plan? The ad is from April 2020, by the way.Context:… https://t.co/nORPU9DJ4U" createdat="1609651707000" id="1345602905416470529"></div> We checked the brand’s official handles and found that the ad had since been removed. He also suggested that the brand should ‘build a larger narrative around the causes of heart attack in the 40s that do not directly correlate it to oil consumption alone.’ Meanwhile, brand strategist Lloyd Mathias pointed that the player did not lead an unhealthy lifestyle and that sportsmen with a 10-15 year playing life need to keep the earnings coming in. <div type="twitter" handle="LloydMathias" handlename="Lloyd Mathias" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/459068431027826689/OoV8_z_6_normal.jpeg" favoritecount="124" retweetcount="15" status="Seen many tweets on the irony in Sourav Ganguly endorsing Fortune RiceBran Oil. Got to realise it’s the risk one ta… https://t.co/XDhO5g9fNr" createdat="1609671398000" id="1345685497503354881"></div> How the brand chooses to tackle the situation is something we will now need to wait and watch.

As people re-discover Sourav Ganguly’s old ad endorsing Fortune Rice Bran Oil, Twitterati wonders what the brand’s next steps will be

Kolkata, May 30 () The world was in a "sheer shock" in the past few months due to the COVID-19 pandemic but BCCI president Sourav Ganguly is confident that life will be back to normal once the vaccine for the virus is developed. All sport including cricket has fallen prey to the COVID-19 pandemic, which abruptly halted all the sporting events globally since March, thus disrupting the scheduling along with huge financial setbacks for the respective associations. "This is something that has got the world in sheer shock. I think things will be back on track. We did not have the medicines to take care of it. But over a six-seven months' period once the vaccine comes up everything will be normal," Ganguly said during a live class on 'Unacademy' app. "We have this tremendous resistance in ourselves. I think cricket will be back to normal. Yes, there will be some changes in schedule but think the BCCI and the ICC will be hell bent to get cricket back to normal. Ganguly believes once the vaccine is out, the virus will be like any other health issues like flu or jaundice but with a cure. "Cricket will be very strong. There will be different tests, medical examinations for players, but I don't see it coming in the way of sport and it will go forward. As the vaccine comes out, it's going to be normal life I think. If you fall sick, whether you have fever, jaundice you pick those medicines and get better." Ganguly, who went on to become one of the most successful captains of India having made his Test debut with a century at Lord's, also went down the memory lane and said he'd become a cricketer by "accident". Having taken up football seriously, he was asked by his father to join a cricket coaching to keep away from playing mischief and there was no looking back since then. "Football was my life. I was very good at it till class nine. During one summer vacation, my father (late Chandi Ganguly, who was in the Cricket Association of Bengal) told me you're doing nothing at home go and practice. He put me into a cricket academy. "I loved going there because it kept me away from home my parents, my brothers, my family, who were very disciplined. For me, this was a time away from them. I don't know what my coach saw in me he told my father you should take him out of football. So I got into cricket." Recollecting getting a hundred against Odisha at Eden in an age-group match, Ganguly said: "Five-six players got sick because of typhoid and an SOS came our academy. I was fortunate to be one of them. I was nowhere but I got a hundred and then everything went off well. I became an accidental cricketer." Ganguly said he had to fit into his elder brother Snehashish's kits so he became a left-hander. "I had stopped playing for two-three months since then and then the CAB called for the trials. I had no kit. My brother played cricket and he was a lefthander. I had to adjust to a left-hander's kit, the gloves and all." "I'm lucky that I played this game. I have seen this game evolve from the time I started," Ganguly said adding that his real inspiration came when the Kapil Dev-led India lifted the World Cup for the first time in 1983. Picking his Lord's debut hundred as the best moment of his career, he said: "I had a debut hundred in Duleep Trophy, made a debut in Ranji final for Bengal but it was like a fairytale to get hundred at Lord's." "It will remain with me forever. My mindset that day I feel was the best that I had ever. Maybe the destiny was with me to become a Test cricketer. I proved myself that I belong here," he added. TAP KHS KHS

Once vaccine comes up, everything will be normal: Ganguly

New Delhi, May 3 () BCCI president Sourav Ganguly is deeply saddened and intimidated by the devastation caused because of the COVID-19 pandemic and has equated the unprecedented crisis to playing a Test match on a dangerous wicket. The decorated former player opened up on life under lockdown due to the novel coronavirus pandemic that has claimed over 2.40 lakh lives across the world while infecting more than 34 lakh people. "This situation is a Test match on a very dangerous wicket. The ball is seaming and spinning as well - the batsman has very little margin of error," Ganguly said while speaking on '100 Hours 100 Stars', an initiative started by Fever Network. "So, the batsman has to score runs and keep his wicket safe with this little margin of error, and win this Test match," he added. A winner of innumerable fierce battles during his playing days when there was no dearth of fearsome fast bowlers and quality spinners, Ganguly was tempted to draw a parallel between the tough moments in the sport and the health crisis. "This is very difficult, but we hope that we will win this match together," he added. Ganguly expressed his sadness at the number of lives lost in the pandemic and the irreparable damage that it has caused. "I am really upset seeing the current situation, because so many people are suffering outside. We are still struggling to understand how to stop this pandemic," he said. "This atmosphere all over the world has really bothered me. We don't know how, when and where it came from - we all were unprepared for this," he added. Not just upset, Ganguly conceded he cannot help feeling a big scared of what's unfolding because of the disease. "People are being affected by this so much. There have been so many deaths. This situation upsets me, and I also feel scared," he said. "People come to my house to deliver groceries, food, so I feel a little scared as well. So it's a mixed feeling. I just want this to end as quickly as possible," he added, He said cricket has taught him to face tough situations in life and the importance of staying alert at all times. Asked how he keeps himself positive, the former captain said: "Cricket has taught me a lot. I faced real life, high-pressure situations. You have to make runs and there is just one ball left. "If you make one wrong move, one wrong footwork, you will not get another chance. These kind of situations make you alert and aware about real life situations," he said. The BCCI chief, though, also added that he is getting to spend a lot of time with his family after a long time. "It's been a month into the lockdown. I didn't mind it earlier. Earlier, I wouldn't get time at home like this. My lifestyle involved travelling for work everyday. "For the past 30-32 days, I have been at home with my family, spending time with my wife, daughter, my mother and my brother. "I have got a time like this after long, so I am enjoying myself," he said. AH PM PM

Current situation is like Test match on dangerous wicket: Ganguly on COVID-19 pandemic

<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.”

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