Monday, December 17, 2007

Business with Controversy : Is it a new funda of Brand Building?

Everyone might have seen the Popular brands which are being endorsed by well known celebrities. Mostly related to Movie Actors and Sports person ( specially in India its cricket and bollywood), advertisements have a high impact on the user's buying behavior.
Holds true with every walk of advertisements whether its online or offine or just goodwill creation through brand building activities.

Here is a case where the brand building can go the wrong side while hurting the public sentiments of a particular religion.

A rediff news report shows how businessmen are playing with the traditions, may not be done intentionally though :

Strongly protesting the use of Hindu deity's image allegedly by an American website to market its products, the Orissa government on Monday said it would take up the matter with the US embassy.

"We will certainly protest this and also ask the Centre to initiate appropriate action in this matter," Orissa's Law Minister B B Harichandan said.

The minister's reaction came a day after a group in Puri filed an FIR against the e-shopping website, accusing it of hurting religious sentiments by using Lord Jagannath's image in the advertisement of undergarments.


Some say , every advertisement is a good advertisement. But is it that simple ?
Controversy to a certain extent will let others know about the name/company, but isnt it also showing that the guru's of such campaigns are lacking with innovative ideas to market the products?

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