McDowell's Royal Snag

The recent advert by McDowell, targeting Royal Stag, is a brilliant example of parody advertising going belly up. The ad featured M.S.Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh, senior cricketers of the Indian Cricket Team and apparently, close friends.

Parody ad - McDowell vs. Royal Stag

One could argue that this was an example of comparative advertising; however, comparative advertisements specifically mention competitors’ names to highlight why the competitor is inferior. In this case, McDowell used everything but the name ‘Royal Stag’ and poked fun at its competitor for most of the length of the ad. Hence, parody advertising would be more apt a reference.

However, this particular advert took parody advertising to a level that left a bad taste in most viewers’ mouths. It contained serious mistakes, which explains why it was taken off the air soon after it was telecast.

McDowell possibly released the ad to start a duel with Royal Stag, however, it ended up hurting its own brand image.

The whole premise of the ad was to dismiss the ‘make it large’ concept of Royal Stag and promote the ‘think different’ concept instead. However, the ad chose to showcase this dismissal by pitting two senior players of the Indian cricket team against each other. Although both players were not shown in the ad, the ad was not convincing enough to avoid that impression or to simply dismiss it as harmless humour.

Dhoni represents a team of Indian cricketers who are almost always (except in the IPL) seen playing as a unit and working with each other towards a common goal. Cricket is the cause of the various advertising and endorsement effects that the players enjoy. Cricket is a team sport and the team always comes before the individual, however, this notion is clearly defied in the McDowell ad. Pepsi has followed this concept well in its ads, by highlighting team spirit apart from the feel good factor or benefits of its product. It is acceptable to show players having a go at each other, but it should be in a humourous or/and harmless manner. The viewer should not get an impression of dampened team spirit within Team India.

Understandably, many questioned Dhoni’s audacity to participate in such an advert and even anticipated a strained relationship with Singh. This goes completely against the concept of camaraderie that players should be promoting through their ads. The negative impact on Dhoni’s image, however, was minimal because of his and his team’s superior on-field performance. A revered sport has the power to suppress many an uncomfortable situation.

The other grave mistake was a reference to Harbhajan’s (or his look-alike’s) father and then showing a man slapping Harbhajan's look-alike and referring to him as “khottey de puttar.” Singh’s father passed away in 2000 and this derogatory connotation would not have been taken well by him, his family or his fans.

The other important factor to consider is that the Indian audience does not take to such ads kindly. This might have been taken in the desired spirit in another country but Indians takes their cricket and cricketers way too seriously.

IPL is a different ball game altogether. It shows Indian players pitted against each other but the pretext of that format is clear and understood well by the audience. The audience knows that it is more entertainment than cricket and come to think of it, there are no distasteful references by players, team owners or advertisers.

Now, celebrities participating in parody advertising would make much more sense than cricketers. Celebrities do not act in teams, in fact, many take a jibe at each other at press conferences. The cola giants did in fact participate in parody advertising involving celebrities. The ads were not only creative but also ended up helping the actors involved, as it strengthened their respective fan bases and loyalty factors.

The McDowell ad and Mallya’s strong support for it would probably have cost him more than it benefitted him. The plug being pulled ended up saving Mallya and his brand from further damage and negative press, although it might have helped with sales. Then again, it is not wise to compromise brand image over a small increase in sales. Even a seasoned businessman like Mallya knows that, or does he?