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Guest Times: In the name of empowerment, are you playing on my insecurities?

Debarpita Banerjee, VP – Marketing & Communication at NGC and Fox International Channels, argues that brands have a choice with what they do with insights. And it need not be the easiest one of playing with insecurities

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Guest Times: In the name of empowerment, are you playing on my insecurities?

Guest Times: In the name of empowerment, are you playing on my insecurities?

Debarpita Banerjee, VP – Marketing & Communication at NGC and Fox International Channels, argues that brands have a choice with what they do with insights. And it need not be the easiest one of playing with insecurities

Delhi | July 1, 2014

Debarpita Banerjee Debarpita Banerjee

As I turned the page of the newspaper one recent morning, I saw Juhi Chawla smiling out of a quarter-page ad endorsing a supplement for kids. It was more of a weight and mass builder than the usual run-of -the mill health drink. And the headline said something to the effect 'You will be blamed'.

I did give my morning tea a bit of a long pause. So here was a brand taking the help of a popular face, outrightly scaring already scared mothers of being blamed for having a weak child! Nice.  Now, I am not a mother, so I felt less of an 'ouch' as a woman. But I felt more as a fellow industry person. I might have been guilty of a few concepts in my career that played on the vulnerable, just like that.

Since no science and research has made it foolproof as to what works in the much subjective world of advertising, for all you know, it may be hitting the bitter spot, spot on. It might also have raked up enough interest or insecurity to start the sampling. But the question is, for how long? How long can brands sell themselves on human insecurities? And if consumers do end up buying them, what kind of relationship do they share with these brands? Or, on a very different level of repercussion, how long before it eats into the conscience of the brand and advertising professional? To lead him or her to the inevitable burn-out precursory question “kar kya rahen hain yaar.”

This is still a blatant case. The industry is infected with highly layered and purposeful versions of these.  Under the much popular agenda of 'empowerment'.

Only fair women make it to a successful marriage or profession. Even to the level of self-confidence needed to be able to walk into a room full of people. Sex may reject you if your lingerie isn't titillating enough. Children will stop looking after you in old age. A good housewife should always have answers to sudden need of evening snacks. These gems are hidden everywhere. Under beautiful faces, intelligent storylines, great music and beaming smiles. It might be stretching it too much to say that all brands that talk about empowerment play up a deep insecurity. But those cases are relatively rarer to find, and I must say, I am still searching.

I guess in the fishing net of insights, the easiest one to catch is insecurity. And then the easiest next step, if not using it as blatantly as in my starting example, is to flip it and get to a first level of empowerment. But we do have a choice with what we can do with insights. A certain brand almost a decade back started redefining beauty, borrowing from the real world rather than the photo-shopped advertising world. Was it based on an insecurity? Most definitely. But the brand chose to address it as 'inspiration' rather than 'empowerment'. And even though the concept of viral was absent at that time, the brand and the work did gather momentum even through word of mouth.

I guess we will always have a choice how we want to cook the insights we catch. Educate. Inspire. Entertain. And if we do choose to use it to empower, we at the least need to learn to hide it well enough to make it not just look but feel worthy as well.

(Debarpita Banerjee has spent around 14 years in advertising across agencies like RK Swamy BBDO, Leo Burnett and JWT. For the past few years, she has been heading marketing for National Geographic and Fox International channels, India.)

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

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