Ekatvam by tanishq - are soft controversies the best form of advertising?

Abstract

Arun Narayan, Vice President of Marketing and Retail at Tanishq, was sitting in his study in Bengaluru contemplating the future of Tanishq – the jewellery brand under Titan. Every few seconds, he could hear the faint sound of a firecracker – it was the Indian festival of Diwali. But Arun was not at ease this Diwali. The past month had been pretty excruciating for him, with Tanishq facing huge uproar and resentment over its recent ads under the “Ekatvam” (Hindi for Oneness) collection. The criticism was so strong that the brand had to pull down the advertisements twice and issue an apology explaining the essence of the ad, and how it was mistaken by the public. Arun spent his entire professional life at TATA after passing out from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta in 1996. He had been associated with the Titan brand for good 18 years now, rising the ranks and taking over as VP of Tanishq as recently as April 2020. Little did he know that he would have to face one of the most difficult public controversies just 6 months into the new position. The series of events following the first ad under the Ekatvam collection released on October 14th was nothing similar to anything Arun had handled in the past 22 years. Arun was more concerned about the strong negative sentiment that their Diwali Ekatvam ad received – featuring four prominent Indian actresses sharing their ideas of a stay home Diwali with no firecrackers.