Happy Birthday Mr. Bachchan

It's Neo's bday today! And he shares it with Big B. Like most of us, Amitabh Bachchan has been an integral part of our growing up years! Post 2000, AB ver2.0 has had some acting patches even better than his 'angry young man days'.

Just read a longish interview of AB with Khalid Mohammed. Must admit the questions lagged AB's answers... I would have preffered Vir Sanghvis' interrogation!

AB lives in the media glare 24X7. Everything that is to be known about him is known. At 64, the sexier, spicier stories about him are long over( but for bit roles like Sexy Sam in KANK). Therefore, am listing only the few new thoughts that raced my mind as I glossed through the sundry AB images in the dailies.(I shudder to switch on the TV, where I am sure they would be doing a minute by minute update on AB's Bday). Poor man. Leave him alone. Let's not smother him with our TRP obsessed affections:-)

Here are stray thoughts on brand AB, before I am sucked into making arrangements for Lil Neo...

1. New Nomenclature. Amitabh Bachchan - the actor, the icon, the era is far richer than the current appellaton that media has foisted on him - 'Big B'. AB is not just 'Big'. He is 'Great'. He is a medium in himself. He is a cross-over between youth and old age, between high-brow and low-brow. A unique cross-over between Bollywood, TV and Advertising.

Every usage of the appellation 'Big B' in fact actually littles AB and his achievements in a way.

2. The medium is the message. If I were AB's brand manager, I would have recommended forming an ABTV 2 years back. (With high profile friends of AB, I am sure funding would not have been an issue.)

Imagine no more keeping track of the number of brand endorsements.LOL
The mechanics would be simple - brand managers and agencies need to answer a short quiz on the brand fit between 'Brand X' and 'Brand AB' at 'Jalsa'. (Of course, one could always pay more to match the brand horoscope!)

3. Exclusivity vs Exposure. Brand AB will soar higher with a little selectivity, not indiscriminate exposure. Of course AB has justified over-exposure in the past with his 200 odd crores of pending debt. But,increasingly the argument sounds tenuous. Mr. Bachchan, at 64, you can afford to be a lil slow. Focus more on the quality of 'Black' rather than the grey zones of 'Boom'. Exclusivity had helped you in your younger days. It will do 'bigger' wonders now! Even Abhishek is raking in big moolah!

4. Big Causes.Counting good health, good luck and a steady stream of projects, it is nevertheless unlikely he would have an active working life of more than 5-10 years(I pray for more though...). I know he is an actor. But the greatest Indian brand can be better used than selling beverages, baniyan or bandh gala suits alone!

I think the country would do well with more pulse polio campaigns. Use of brand AB for more social advertising. Using AB strategically in the rise of the Indian 'Soft Power' status and some 'India Shining' concepts. And it is here that I feel, brand AB can still be 'BIGGER', age notwithstanding.

Because no matter how many quanti tools we might invent for celebrity management, it is highly unlikely that India would have another Mr. Bachchan.

5. 360 AB.Even as you laugh off my ABTV concept, think of the possibilities of AB Radio, AB Times, AB Communication/ Acting School, AB as an avid blogger on the media landscape, AB as corporate trainer, Walk-with-AB programmes, AB on motivational tapes and DVDs, AB as the official evangelist for Bollywood...

AB is the rare case of a celebrity that is 'infinitely elastic'. They don't have an AB equivalent even in Hollywood...Happy Birthday Mr. Bachchan!

McHealth and Brand Grey Zone

There are some big global brands about whom I feel increasingly indifferent and ambivalent. And I have an inkling this might be a shared feeling for a lot of us! Top of charts would be McDonalds and Coke/Pepsi...

Today is World Heart Day. I celebrated it by visting McDonalds with Shilpi and Neo:-)
As I had McBites and gulped Coke, a multitude of conflicting thoughts about the two brands raced my mind. Thoughts which never get captured in a focus group, a 2D Hofstede or a single lens laundry list of virtuous values compiled by the brand manager or the planner. But thoughts which increasingly traverse a knowledge-based consumerist culture!

1. Since 2003 if not earlier, I stopped believing in the McDonalds positioning - "If food is a friend, McDonalds is family". Today, McDonalds for me is a slickly packaged, kid-friendly junk food brand. Similarly, for me Coke lost it's 'always refreshing' meaning many years ago. Today, it's a brand of 'small indulgence' which has 6parts per bn pesticide( small enough not to desist me from drinking it twice weekly but large enough not to get the PET bottle home).

2. I am fairly addicted to Coke. Given a choice will always prefer it to a Pepsi. But then again I don't think I have a cache of positive feelings or loyalty towards the brand!
I am addicted to (a)it's complimentary role- Tandoori Chicken and Coke, Movie + Popcorn + Coke, Bland Canteen Food + Coke, Boredom + Coke; (b) it's taste and fizz,(c) the brand graphics and history and (d) the sense of Internationalism and Americana it still holds for me!

3. Increasingly, I find most Cola advertising(Indian) quite idiotic and unnecessary! It might be worthwhile to risk a quarter, free of cola advertising and check the resultant effect on sales. My wicked guess is nothing much will change! Cola advertsing I believe is largely an ego game for marketers and agencies played on mass media.

4. Most celebrity advertising, as I said in my last post is filtered by the savvy consumer(young and old). Celeb endorsement specifically for cola brands I feel is at best entertainment( when executed well -Thanda matlab Coca Cola) and at worst plain 'COLA noise'

5. Like many SEC A Indians, today I dole out generous reward points to health/ fitness conscious, natural brands! Climbing my mental InterBrand scale are brands like Himalaya, Dabur Real, Amul, etc. McDonalds and Coke/ Pepsi hold the bottom most ranks.

6 Hard sell doesn't work for me at all. Therefore, when McDonalds starts preaching vitamin science on its table-mats, I recoil. In similar vein, when Aamir or Rajeev Bakshi come on TV in defence of their brands, it irritates me more. My advice to these mega brands - Please don't jabber McHealth. Please be true to your junk core. I am partly addicted to your brand anyways. I will continue to indulge though in smaller SKUs. You will never regain the glory of yester years. And no amout of slick advertising, hard-nosed PR will ever change my views!

7. Well, the reason I went to McDonalds today was to check out the linking road branch for Neo's birthday! The place had a budget scheme, it had the balloons and the festoons, it had Ronald McDonald..And McDonalds would make my son and his friends happy. Yet, in my heart there was a great dissonance and resistance for the brand. Because my mind is storing a simple equation. McDonalds = Junk Food. And that's not good for Neo and his friends! It will never be...

Would love to compile a list of brands which we love to consume and hate as well! O smart consumer, welcome to the grey zone of modern brands...