Politics and branding

The political arena is getting hotter these days with elections just around the corner in India. Many brands have started to pick up this issue and mould their communique to correspond to the changing principles and beliefs. Some have realigned their traditional support to play safe lest they lose any patronage from the rival parties. In Andhra Pradesh where Chiranjeevi has launched his own party, Praja Rajyam, the few brands he endorses seem to be a hurry to stay clear of him and his affiliation.

Chiranjeevi is a popular movie star referred to as the Megastar of Tollywood. He had inspired people to resonate him with the Thumps Up brand. He rarely does any advertisements for brands and is very careful with his selection but he had to yield to Thumps Up(which has about 31% of all the soft drink market in India) and Navratna oil as the proceeds were going to fund a social cause. Now the scene is different as he has a political party and yearns to be the next chief minister, it is obvious that opposition parties and non sympathizers would stay hostile to the brands that he endorses. At the same time Chiru has a huge fan base and they may turn hostile to Thumps Up too if it dumps Chiru.

Now is a tough situation to the brand to stay clear of the problem. Thumps Up now chose a non controversial, neutral star and is airing more ads by Mahesh Babu who has made his own image in the industry. Seems people are buying the tactic. Mahesh seems to be replacing the image of Chiru when it comes to Thumps Up. Well Thumbs Up then.