In the past few weeks, India has seen a new wave of hate against brands. Hate speech reached its obnoxious peak with the media trials and witch hunt against actress Rhea Chakraborty who was hounded by journalists and social media hate mongers for allegedly consuming drugs and being party to her late boyfriend and actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide. After spending 28 days in judicial custody, Mumbai HC granted bail to Chakraborty & observed that Section 27A of the NDPS Act was not applicable in the case. Her lawyer Satish Manishinde said, “We wish to do whatever is required into the law to fight the illegal, malicious campaign that was carried against her by various channels, various media houses, and various scums in the media world. Her sentiments are much stronger than mine. She’s a fighter. She’s a tigress. She’s a Bengali tigress and she will fight for it.”
Indian CEO Rajiv Bajaj made headlines after he declared that he would no longer advertise with media outlets who practice hate mongering and toxicity. A few days later, India’s biggest biscuit brand Parle-G took the same stand against news channels for advertising policies. India as a nation has always reeled under the yoke of pressing issues like poverty, food shortage, housing inequalities and caste politics. The media has only started taking a stand, that too in minimum capacity against hate mongering or global human rights issues, because the larger news agenda is more tedious and inevitably caters more to third world problems.
Last month, when India’s premium gold and jewellery brand Tanishq released an ad that showed a baby shower organised for the Hindu bride by her Muslim in-laws, social media went berserk against it, and accused the brand of promoting “Love Jihad”. At the same time, the 43 second long ad also got support from ad associations who cited the need to protect and strengthen fundamental rights to expression. Calling it an un-programmed and organic concept its maker Amit Akali told a publication, ”The love on social media has been more than the hate.” The concept of the ad was not to spread or trigger communal disharmony and rather focused on Ekatvam (Unity).
Yet, veteran journalists and industry men from the ad world have demanded that tycoons like Ratan Tata (Tanishq is a Tata enterprise) and news channels should take a deeper look at their advertising policies with a fine tooth comb. Brands need more strategic policies now more than ever, not just to make it to top trends and convert business leads, but also a contingency plan to combat social media hate speech in case their ads go viral due to difference in perspectives.
