Conventional as Indian weddings may seem, there is still room for modification, as shown in Tanishq’s ‘Remarriage’ campaign by Lowe Lintas.
Lowe Lintas ECD Vasudha Narayananan spoke about the campaign at the IPG Breakfast With Women Who Bring Home The Bacon during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Narayananan began by explaining the campaign’s significance: “Marriage in India is considered very auspicious. The marriage business for jewellery is huge, and Tanishq being a market leader in this business – Those are one of the reasons why this advertising was controversial in India.”
The award-winning campaign got both positive and negative attention in India, where women who consider remarriage or divorce are frowned upon. “The second reason is the attitudes and the lifestyle. In India marriage is for keeps. Even if you get widowed naturally, even if your husband dies a natural death, it’s considered to be bad luck. So the women are kind of ostracized. And of course having a child out of wedlock is not considered good,” said Narayananan.
However, attitudes and lifestyles in India are slowly changing, with women who now have the guts to get out of marriage if they’re unhappy. “They are now willing to move out, they are willing to have marriage again if the first one didn’t work out, or if they’re widowed, or have a child, and this is very very slowly changing,” she said.
And this is where Tanishq came in, by recognizing a trend in the market: five percent of married women were thinking about remarriage.
According to Narayananan, the campaign has led people to see Tanishq as a modern brand, and as a market leader. “When you set a trend you will be talked about. When you spark something, when you take on an issue which is that taboo and you make it part of the dinner table conversation, it is a good thing. You are now seen as a market leader,” Vasudha Narayananan reiterated.
She added that it was not difficult for Lintas and Tata to take the risk. “We’ve been working together for almost 20 years on a large percentage of the clients and it would be irresponsible of us if we I didn’t encourage them to do edgy advertising,” Narayananan said.
Though negative reactions were inevitable, there were also some encouraging feedback. “In fact we got a letter from a woman who was widowed and remarried and she had a child and she sent an extremely emotional letter about how this campaign has actually affected her. She said earlier ‘I used to hang my head in shame when I walked out but now that Tanishq has got this topic onto the table, we can talk about it and I don’t have to, you know, be embarrassed and walk with my head down.’ She says it has made a difference to her life,” Narayananan said.
She said such ads, which can really make a huge impact and difference in India, are growing in number and getting more influential. Narayananan gave examples, including ‘Power of 49’ for Tata Tea and ‘I Am Not a Kitchen Appliance’ for Havells.
‘Power of 49’ speaks to the women who make up 49 percent of voters in India. “They are actually talking to 49% of the Indian working audience and saying ‘Go out there and exercise your right because you can change the history of politics in the country. You can now decide who’s going to be the leader,'” she said.
Meanwhile, ‘I Am Not a Kitchen Appliance’ talks to women who are used to being taken for granted by their husbands. “It talks to the women and women are now saying, ‘I’m not a kitchen appliance, you go make your own coffee, you iron your own shirt. I’m not an object.'”
The IPG Breakfast With Women Who Bring Home The Bacon was held on June 18 at the Hotel Majestic Barriere Ballroom in Cannes.
