How to deal with an embarrassing situation.

Advertisements are probably the most effective and used forms of promotion and why wouldn’t it be? We come across so many advertisements on a daily basis but how many do we remember? But there are a few advertisements that do stick in our minds, either it may be because those advertisements are very creative or because of some controversy attached to it. No PR is negative PR, similarly even though the advertisement might be controversial be it does manage to grab a lot of eyeballs.

Let’s begin by understanding what is controversial advertisement. A direct comparison of two brands, dragging religion, caste, color, sexuality, and race in an advertisement, inappropriate language or graphics or even gestures, are all a part of controversial advertisements. Now, do brands intentionally spark a controversial subject into the advertisement to gain attention? And if so, goes it work?

Let’s take a few examples here as it will make us understand better. Zomato placed hoardings across with initials “MC” and “BC” with apparently meant “Mac and Cheese” and “Butter Chicken”. The initials attracted a lot of attention as people assumed Zomato used abusive language. The message and was something else and the intent to send that across was different. The intent was to attract attention and they succeeded in doing that. Even though this was controversial and Zomato did receive a lot of back clash for it, it ended up grabbing the attention of people.

Another example is an advertisement for Tuff shoes that starred Milind Soman and Madhu Sapre in the lead. The advertisement featured them wearing nothing but just the pair of Tuff shoes with a python wrapped around their necks. This ad was banned and received a lot of back clash too for the indecent behaviour as it crossed certain guidelines. This brand received a lot of criticism and affected it immensely. 

Controversial advertisements are unpredictable, sometimes they work in the favour of the brand, sometimes they don’t. It depends on how you project it and how the world takes it. Sometimes creating a controversy with a direct comparison may benefit the brand, like when Burger King compared themselves with McDonalds. But in the case of Tuff shoes, people didn’t take that too well and affected the brand in a negative way. The saga of dragging controversial issues in advertising continues and will not end anytime soon, but the fact is brands are being more careful with regards to what they can show and what they can’t.