How Livpure and boAt are playing the pop culture card

Delhi: Most recently, two pieces of full-page advertising attracted the critical eye. boAt invoking the spirit of Apple's 'Think Different' and Livpure drawing deliberately from Hero Honda's 'Fill it. Shut it. Forget it.'

The armchair purists who occupy the frontlines of LinkedIn and allied platonic platforms were up in arms. Folks from industry, small and large, bemoaned the dearth of fresh ideas and in the case of boAt, flayed the chutzpah of daring to belittle Apple. The debate moved on senselessly to multiple such side shows. All of them, alas, are unconnected to hard core truths of business, for everybody. 

For starters, it is necessary to note that Advertising has been thriving on the largesse of popular culture. Gabbar Singh inspired the narrative of many ads and each time a celebrity is hired, brands dearly hope that a slice of their celluloid associations pass on some aura. The Cola commercials live off this ideology and a quick look at the modelling career of The Great Khali will further confirm this thinking.

The objective is really quite simple. Brands find print advertising to be useful in accelerating transactions as it clearly does not have the storytelling acumen of TV. In a deeply cluttered media environment, both within print and in the larger digital universe, ads need to stand out. Which is exactly where the reference to a familiar, ideally popular, narrative comes to the party. Readers stay on for longer and chances are, they read the offering with some detail. If that sounds good, they progress farther on the much-fabled consumer journey.

Thus, popular culture contextualisation is an able bridge between the consumer's wallet and the brand's ambitions. An adhesive for greater engagement and hopefully, a stimulus for business. Now, for a moment, do consider ' Think Different' and 'Fill it. Shut it. Forget it.' as specimens of popular culture and not merely advertising slogans. Thus putting them in the same cohort as Gabbar Singh, by dint of sheer mass connectivity. 

As long as done legally and with dignity, this is not plain opportunism but instead a smart context setting. Nothing wrong and mostly everything is right. Merely sherpas guide the reader to a life-enhancing value proposition. 

In fact, the entire film industry at large, especially Bollywood, thrives on idea replication. Sometimes officially and on other occasions, surreptitiously. At times South India is the inspiration and at other times, it is the South of France. 

No longer do people act with prudish sensitivity on the act of borrowing. As long as the furtherance to a new set of audiences is done in a sufficiently high-quality manner and everybody makes much-needed money. In the case of advertising, the equivalent is the power of the replication to provoke genuine business, that makes a quality difference to customer lives. 

The evolution of consumer behaviour, especially in the purchase process, is a significant development of the digital age. No longer do people trust pure-play advertising for the promises they make. Instead, they choose to find out for themselves, courtesy of Google. Data proves this pattern across cohorts, in India and Bharat. So what we need is the evocation of interest and the awakening of a need gap or a desire wishlist. That is currently the most valuable role of static advertising as the rest of the process will be fulfilled amply by modern customers. 

When Livpure says boldly ' Get it. Shut it. Forget it.' the attention of the reader is drawn to an innovative 30-month free maintenance plan and a whole host of conduits to buy. When boAt says that it's time to 'Think Better' and not different, the curious listeners will get into information search mode, whether expert or P2P and reach their conclusions. In either case, the reference to the original is a service and not a disservice to the citizenry, as many more can make knowledgeable choices.

One last thing and this is for the critical purists. Advertising has long aspired for an elevation to the romantic realm of popular culture. Truthfully, a small but significant body of work does play at this level. Quite like the movies, ensuring a much-extended shelf life and influence for the original idea is good news. It is value creation for almost everybody, whether creator or user. Let's just revel in this and focus on getting the safest water and the cleanest sound, amongst other such notables. Without burning pockets or egos.