United Breweries V/s Pernod Ricard

This is a typical Seagram’s Royal Stag TVC. It is inspiring and triggers one’s senses about making it large. Live life king size. Now obviously that would be like promoting your competitor's brand- the self-promoted ‘king of good times’; hence make it large (my opinion). These TVCs were smartly made, filmed and scripted. A good ad campaign overall no doubt. Except, who would’ve known that the two players seen rubbing their shoulders in this ad would one day be cast by two major competitors?

But this is where it all started from (only for the current TVC face-off)

. 

Again the typical Royal Stag TVC which has now taken shape of a Johnnie Walker/Nike/Adidas type of advertisement campaign where prominent players/celebrities talk about how they rose above the normal challenges and became who they are today.

This is where the UB group (in my opinion) f***ed up. I think that these gimmicks are best suited where you have simple options for consumer to like/dislike. Like Cola-Pepsi, Rin-Tide, etc. Consumers either go for this or that (provided they pay some attention to your ad wars).

Apart from this, am not sure if many paid attention to the lil birdy which went ahead to say a lot. This is a snapshot of Mr. Mallya's Twitter account. 

Big deal! As if sponsoring the other team makes them any different than yours. Well, you certainly must’ve outbid the rivals for the sponsorship.  These are the days of multinational markets by multinational companies. This way or that both aimed at targeting a widespread market!

The thing is, on one hand you claim to be the ‘King of Good Times’ and on the other you conduct yourself like this? How is anyone having good times like this? I am not sure if this is considered as unfair trade practices, but if it were to be anything else it surely is unethical and immoral.

You are, whether knowingly or unknowingly, pitching a cricketer against another team mate using a religious community (Sardars) to have a jab at your business rival? See I don’t know the personal equations of Bhajji and MSD, and thus will not comment whether it is good/bad for their games. It’s beyond my domain anyway. What am more concerned is how could the Liquor Baron’s empire take low blows at rivals using patriotism and/or religious community?

I know this ad would’ve looked appealing in the discussion board and quite hilarious as well, but should’ve never left the discussion board at all. Brand loyalty is quite huge in our country where people stick to one brand of drinks, cigarettes, underwear, etc not in any particular order. Whats more important to note is, fan following is equally big in our country. Am sure no son of soil north Indian would like to see Bhajji being belittled! Or any cricket follower for any player for that matter!

Now what remains to be seen is how do Seagram’s come back. They better be smart with their approach. Taking this any further will only escalate the matters. 

As it is Bhajji’s mother has approached the courts because of UB group’s little stunt. I hope the mocking ends here without MSD’s mom coming into the picture!