The Power Of Boycott On Brand & Marketing

Consumers boycott a brand when brands do wrong ‘marketing’ or stretch their creative liberty too far. During COVID-19, Kent RO’s “Do you let your maid knead atta dough by hand? Her hands may be infected”, backfired. Consumers found it rather classist, misogynist and discriminatory towards house helps and called for a Boycott. Fabindia was accused of “defacing” the Hindu festival of Diwali terming it Jashn-e-Riwaaz, pushing Muslim ideologies unnecessarily during a Hindu festival. A same-gender couple celebrating the Hindu festival Karwa Chauth in a Dabur Ad was withdrawn too. Zomato’s Hrithik Roshan Ad was also recently withdrawn after priests protested. Tanishq’s release of a video Ad celebrating interfaith harmony was viciously trolled on social media for allegedly promoting ‘love jihad’. All of this could have been avoided if the marketers had read the consumer sentiments well at the time of strategising and planning their campaigns.