Scam,
sham, shame… Goafest 2013 comes to an end touching a new nadir. The amount of
scam work made an entry into this award carnival was not only shocking but also
sickening in contrast to the essence of advertising, which should provide with high-degree of accountability – from strategy to
creative to media to result.
Aftermath of the event, as Ivan, the editor of
‘Ads of the world’ suggested that in the UK and in the US such a sexist
campaign or any communication involving kidnapping didn’t go along well with
the people, I would like to ask him see the following pieces of communication
one after the other to have a better idea of the reality –
No harm in appreciating the fact that no joke,
no communication should hurt anyone’s sentiments, but that decorum should also
be followed and maintained by the
people hailing from the other side of the Atlantic .
Even while they crack an innocuous joke or simply indulge in a potentially
sexiest and sexist activity – which contradicts the moral and ethical fabric of
the Indian culture.
What even
more bizarre and baffling was, if scams happen to be so vital to showcase one’s
creative talent then on what basis Bobby Pawar and the team needed to face the
ignominy and insult at JWT India because they had created some scam ads / posters for
Ford Figo – the car with an ‘extra-large boot’?
In case the
scam was not the issue but the creative was, then fair enough, let’s postmortem
the creative in order to understand whether the creative was so evil at all –
as it made out to be.
The functional benefit offered by
Ford Figo is ‘extra large boot’.
Why you need a car with an ‘extra
large boot’?
So you ‘do NOT need to worry’
about how to accommodate your luggage and belongings in the car while travelling.
Hence, ‘leave your worries behind…
with Figo’s extra-large boot’ was just a perfect offer to put the point across
and entice the TG.
The campaign was built with three
ads / posters, exploiting the visual elements as gags. As shown below in the following
pictures –
The visuals found objectionable
and not in good taste rather SEXIST because women were shown in their
voluptuous avatar and tied and gagged.
Okay.
Now what does the word SEXIST
mean?
“Discriminatory on the basis of sex
(usually said of men's attitude toward women).”
So, does that mean… ‘Paris Hilton
is a man’ who was portrayed in one of the ads / posters showing discriminatory attitude
to Kim Kardashian and her sisters or ‘Sebastian Vettel and other two F1 drivers
are women’ who fell preys to Michael Schumacher’s sexism, as shown in another
ad / poster?
Any answer to that?
Not really, right?
On the other hand, women were
definitely presented in an obnoxious and filthy way in the ad / poster that showed Silvio Berlusconi
expressing his joy over having had the fairer sex at his mercy; that was sexist
indeed.
So in a three-ad / poster campaign, only
one ad / poster was objectionable and vulgar for sure but noway the other two.
However, if the campaign is
dissected creatively, for the reason obvious, it has to be said it was an acute
case of creative load-shedding where none seems to have taken the load of
thinking deep into the communication and therefore worked at a very superficial
level to impress some half-brained, half-learned and full-boozed juries at an
award show like Goafest.
So, no surprise, the campaign was
rejected by the client ‘Ford India
And while
a campaign becomes a scam and never gets published officially in a mass media
or even a cult media, it can’t jeopardise or endanger any brand’s image even if
a huge hue and cry is made over an issue involving the brand.
If some
sentiments were offended, tendering an apology in writing – if needed, even in
the form of an advertisement or an advertorial or a public notice – from both
the client and the agency was more than enough.
In fact,
to apologise, a gag on Bobby and the team would’ve been a far better option to
minimise the created tension, so as to eliminate it for once and for all with a
dollop of self-mockery.
But
instead of that, sacking a CCO – Chief Creative Officer – and the creative team
responsible for the campaign, as well as terminating the guys on the client
side who perhaps singed the entry form of the Abby was ridiculous and a panic
stricken reaction that was nothing but a severe PR and Corporate Communication
malfunction – could only be equated with a wardrobe malfunction on ramps or on
the red carpet.
And mind
that, as per Toyota and Nissan’s latest reports
both the car manufactures are really bullish to expand their market share in
the US
Also, XEROX is not an Indian brand to be precise.
Plus,
French Connection (UK) – fcuk – is no joke in the UK
Not to
mention United Colours of Benetton (UCB) – built and established by controversy
only. Even their UNHATE campaign was no exception that they were compelled to
remove from media owing to public uproar in no real after the release.
Yet, none
was sacked on the client side or on the agency side in any of the cases
mentioned above.
Otherwise,
both Jay Leno and Richard Gere should’ve been or should be sacked from their
respective professions by now or immediately.
It’s
great to respect public sentiments and emotions but never ever at the cost of
some innocent people making them scapegoats for nothing. That’s neither
professionalism nor a process to ensure any quality for that matter. Rather
it’s a poor joke and escapism to wash the hands off in a hurry avoiding the
real issue.
Frankly,
when an award is won if that becomes an agency’s victory then how come if a
crisis takes place that can be only a few individuals’ problem but not the
agency’s?
So, if harsh
settlement was the only solution in the Ford Figo scam ads case, then Ford India India
When
neither of that happened, obviously things seemed to be quite dubious and suspicious…
why only Bobby was forced to go Pawar-less (read powerless), so was the team, in
order to ensure the agency’s face was saved, somehow, in the darkness – while
both JWT India and Ford India tripped, very badly, on scams.
The truth
must come out sooner than later to stop such a nuisance from happening in future.
Because advertising is a serious business, not a circus, and creative people
are not jokers.
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