Brands wed Social Causes: A happily ever after?

Reebok’s latest, hard hitting ad campaign featuring Bollywood’s female badass Kangana Ranaut is teaching ‘#girlsdontfight’. The ad film that has been conceptualized by McCann Worldgroup India is urging more and more Indian women to fight for themselves, shattering the long-held societal notion that ‘girls don’t fight’. Featuring Justine Rae Mellocastro, a professional hairstylist and a black belt in martial arts, the ad depicts Mellocastro facing and winning over eve-teasers.

Not only Reebok’s association with a social cause may help it build a customer base among young and fiercely independent women facing harassment anywhere, it may also help in brand recognition and provide Reebok an edge over its competitors. With women’s safety being a hot topic all over India, there couldn’t have been a better timing to drive home the point.

The growing trend of brands associating with social causes is a fairly new concept that has gained a lot of momentum in the Indian market over the past few years. Ariel’s ‘#sharetheload’ ad campaign is another case in point. The campaign depicts a father’s guilt over seeing her daughter manage all household chores and office work alone, while his son-in-law enjoys and relaxes after coming back from work. To set things right, the father goes back and helps his wife in the daily chore of laundry with of course Ariel, the socially conscious brand. I remember my dad sharing this ad film with my husband during one of his visits! So whether he bought Ariel or not, but my father did have a recall of the ad and even ended up sharing it with others (and hence indirectly promoting the Brand and the associated social cause).

And before I’m termed a ‘Feminazi’ (a radical feminist) who is highlighting brands that are associating or rather promoting women’s rights, there is another very popular campaign I am sure most of you must have either seen or read about. I am talking about the hugely popular 2013 Google India’s ad promoting Google’s Search Engine. The ad film titled ‘Reunion’ was produced by Ogilvy & Mather India. It is story of two school friends separated after partition with one in India and the other in Pakistan and how they get in touch with each other with the help of Google Search. The emotional tale of friendship garnered over 1.6 million views online itself. The ad film had received praise from across the globe. ‘The Star’ (Malaysia) notes that Reunion has "gone viral online, reflecting demands in the two countries for closer people-to-people ties [....] Internet users left thousands of comments on social networking sites describing how the advert had brought them to tears and renewed their hopes for improved relations between the two neighbors."

With fierce competition and difficulty in differentiation in most product/service categories, the idea to build awareness and associate a brand with a social cause is here to stay. While it is effectively able to achieve the communication objective of advertising, it remains to be seen whether it is able to fulfill the sales objective!

Ms. Chhavi Bakaria

Assistant Professor

Dept. of Communication Studies