Arvind Kejriwal and Aaj Tak demonstrate some Bad PR this week

 11th March 2014    Good and Bad PR 

Arvind Kejriwal discussing the story line of a TV interview lands him and Aaj Tak with bad press

During the election time all politicians have to be like Ceaser’s wife. And with the constant presence of TV cameras and the social media just waiting to grab an inconsistency or hypocrisy, it becomes even more important to be careful.

Arvind Kejriwal, who is the self-proclaimed moral compass of the country, has been caught on camera discussing what topics to leave out and what to play up during a TV interview with Aaj Tak journalist Punya Prasun Bajpai.

While the conversation is not atypical of what goes on during the off camera rapport formation phase of any TV interview and India Today (that own Aaj Tak) has denied that the conversation was aired according to the Kejriwal line – if you take such a strong anti-media (actually anti-everything) stand then you are bound to put yourself in the corner with any perceived or real inconsistencies between a public and private persona.

The social media does not waste any time in declaring itself judge and jury. Twitter was abuzz with the story with the sarcastic hashtag #AAPwedsAajTak dominating twitter trends in the early part of the week.

Earlier this week, his supporters’ also wrecked metal detectors at Churchgate station in Mumbai.

The great Chinese war general Sun Tsu advised in his treatise that victory means keeping the high moral ground behind you at all times. Perhaps Kejriwal should read “The art of war”!

American Apparel offends with its ad featuring Bangladeshi born merchandiser

American Apparel’s latest ad reflects the lack of understanding of not only the religious sentiments of other people but is actually very close to racial profiling of the Muslim community.

American Apparel has had several controversial ads in the past-including this on featuring mannequins with fake pubic hair, so this latest ad is very much in line with their shock value ads.

The ad, for American Apparel,  features a topless Bangladeshi born merchandiser, with the words “ Made in Bangladesh” across the picture in an apparent bid to showcase stereotype breaking inclusion – but  ends up doing just the opposite. The problem is not with the fact that the lady is topless (though I would question whether being liberated equates being topless), but the accompanying copy and references to the Muslim community. The text is self-explanatory.

Consider this quote from the ad: “Born in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, Maks vividly remembers attending a mosque as a child alongside her conservative Muslim parents. At age four, her family made a life-changing move to Marina Del Rey, California. Although she suddenly found herself a world away from Dhaka, she continued following her parent's religious traditions and sustained her Islamic faith throughout her childhood. Upon entering high school, Maks began to feel the need to forge her own identity and ultimately distanced herself from Islamic traditions. A woman continuously in search of new creative outlets, Maks unreservedly embraced this photo shoot.”

Plain bad PR!

Good PR

Oreo generates 3D cookies via ‘trending vending’ machines along with Twitter

The manufacturers of Oreo cookies, Mondelez International, had some fun making cookies with a little help from Twitter and high tech 3D printing!

Here’s how it works. Consumers can use the automated touch screen of a special vending machine to select their cookie flavour based on current Twitter trends, including the now famous Ellen Oscar selfie. Automated 3D machines then print the cream flavour on to the cookies!

Watch the video from adage testing the machine and the cookies:

This is an absolutely marvellous PR stunt – creative, high tech, social media integration, high interactivity. Now all one needs is a glass of milk!

Mind your language: FM station Fever 104 is running a campaign called ‘Men against Verbal Abuse ‘

Increasingly there is awareness about how we refer to women. Many swear words in Hindi involve references to women. In a bid to make people aware of the impact these words have, FM station Fever 104 is running a campaign called ‘Men against Verbal Abuse’ fronted by Bollywood star John Abraham. Recently in the US, a highly publicised campaign called ‘Ban Bossy’ was launched by Sheryl Sandberg asking people to pledge to stop using the word bossy for women.

Words have great power and it’s time that statements that build stereotypes about women are stopped. Political correctness can be taken too far at times, but it’s important to do away with negative association with certain words and women.

It’s a thumbs up for the Fever 104 campaign.

Have you seen any great or even bad PR?

Write to Paarul Chand at paarul@prmoment.in or tweet @PaarulC or @PRmomentIndia throughout the week and we’ll happily credit you for your trouble.