Tanishq’s new ad for the sub-brand Rivaah is the kind that makes me cheer loudly with a ‘Bravo, Tanishq!’. The agency behind the ad is Lowe Lintas.
Here’s the ad:
Why ‘Bravo!’?
Consider the backdrop.
In October 2020, Tanishq was literally hounded, both online and offline, for simply portraying a happy interfaith couple and its family. The Tanishq Ekatvam ad showed a Muslim family arranging an extensive Hindu-style VaLai Kaappu ceremony (Godh Bharai/Indian-style baby shower) for their daughter-in-law.
Detailed note: Tanishq Ekatvam – The Oneness Broken
What’s wrong with showing a normal, happy inter-faith couple and its family?
According to the outrage machine, it was a depiction of “Love Jihad”, a fictional construct that the Government has said it has no data on, nor is it defined (to even mine data on) in the Parliament, among many other concocted reasons, all revolving around religion.
But because the outrage didn’t stop with just online threats, and also moved to harass Tanishq store employees, besides doxing an employee in Tanishq headquarters in Bengaluru because of his religion, Tanishq capitulated and removed the ad.
One would have thought that the episode had scarred Tanishq to stay completely off anything even remotely questioning tradition in any form, besides totally avoiding all things religion.
Well, the new Rivaah ad has no religious angle, but it sure questions a tradition.
Note the fact that ‘questioning tradition’ by other brands too has met with severe backlash in recent times. Remember the AU Bank ad featuring Aamir Khan and Kiara Advani that questioned the tradition of the couple entering the bride’s home (as against the groom’s home) first for a specific reason, and the bride asking the groom to keep his right foot first?
Detailed note: About ‘reimagining traditions’ accusation on advertising
Or the Manyavar ad where Alia Bhat, the bride, questions the tradition of ‘Kanyadaan’ with ‘Am I a thing to be given away?’.
Rivaah’s bride questions the tradition of giving more importance to the groom’s family over her own, after a marriage. This is almost on the verge of what Manyavar attempted, but the point being made is categorically different.
The bride in the Rivaah ad is shown to be independent and free-willed right at the outset when someone asks her choice over something related to the wedding, and she asks for something specific based on what she wants.
Her mother’s bhindi dish is the lever that helps convey that she is free-willed even after the marriage to choose to come to her parent’s house first and not necessarily stick to the so-called tradition of heading to the in-laws’ place first.
Tradition says that the in-laws’ place takes precedence over her own place after marriage. But the girl here puts her choice first, over tradition.
The Ekatvam ad had many, many people severely overthinking a simple ad and making a mountain out of a molehill.
Does the Rivaah ad ask that women disrespect in-laws after marriage? Of course not. This is one woman making her own choice. Women can do what they want, whether to follow tradition or choose their own path.
Does the Rivaah bride question all traditions? Hardly! She’s seen in proper Indian bridal finery and looks like she’s going to have a full-fledged traditional wedding.
She is shown to be a working woman who travels on her own, for work (the Delhi in August context). So, would her in-laws be offended if he lands in her parents’ place when she comes to Delhi in August? Who knows? And, who cares? That’s up to them – this is about the girl and her choice. Perhaps she would first drop into her parents’ place, eat some bhindi, and head to her in-laws’ place. Or vice-versa. It’s her choice, after all.
Or, her mother-in-law may put herself in the shoes of the girl and hark back to a time when she got married and didn’t have this kind of choice… and let the girl gladly have her way, understanding the feeling/sentiment behind the choice.
Now, allow me to overthink a specific context in this ad – the choice of bhindi. I honestly do not think bhindi, the vegetable, is merely incidental, and not that it was chosen at random.
I believe the choice of bhindi in the Rivaah ad is adequately intentional, to offer a mild jab at the outrage over the lack of bindi on women’s foreheads in advertising, particularly in jewellery advertising 🙂
A perennial outrage topic involving advertisements in India recently is around women featured without a bindi. There’s even a hashtag to browbeat brands to feature women with bindi on their foreheads, called #NoBindiNoBusiness.
I wrote a more extensive piece on this: The bindi factor in Indian advertising
Even I was criticized for being “anti-bindi” too, in a spectacularly misguided and misinformed online movement against me.
Back to bhindi – ladies finger.
A communications industry veteran mixed things up once and the replies went on to further mix the bindi with the vegetable:
And quite a few responses to those outraging over the lack of bindi in ads use ‘bhindi’ as a sarcastic counterpoint.
Sure, it’s people’s choice to do business with brands or not, as much as the brands’ choice to feature models with or without bindi in their ads. But brands do not force people to buy from them – they cannot, either; they are not elected Governments, just brands. However, the counter, in the form of organized boycott campaigns go beyond individual choice and force brands to bend to the will of the boycotters. My buying or not buying something is my own individual choice. My talking about it online too is my choice. But when I create a hashtag out of it and gather others intentionally to follow my lead (even though I’m not forcing them at all) has a repercussion, unlike a brand’s advertisement that merely suggests something within a fictional narrative.
To be fair, Tanishq uses bhindi only in the Hindi, Marathi, and Bangla versions of the ad.
Marathi:
Bangla:
For the Telugu and Kannada versions of the ad, it’s ‘Rava Dosa’ and ‘Rava Dose’ – full marks for making that distinction in the 2 variants of the ad!
Telugu:
Kannada:
But the lip-sync in these ads, particularly of the bride, leaves a lot to be desired. I assume the ad was made in a language other than Kannada or Telugu (perhaps Tamil or Malayalam, which are yet to be released?) and then dubbed.
Back to the ‘Bravo!’.
So, 3 years after getting mauled by the outrage brigade over something completely pointless, it’s great to see Tanishq retaining its spunk and confidently putting the woman’s choice on priority, even over a so-called tradition. This, despite seeing other brands facing the brunt of vouching for going against some tradition or other in their ads, which are mere ads and not Government orders that come with a warning if they are not adhered to.
I understand why Tanishq surrendered to the outrage in 2020 – the specific trigger was the offline threat to a Muslim employee in the marketing team where his private details were shared on social media as a dog whistle to inflict physical harm to him and his family (this is very real – I still have the screenshots where these details were released on Twitter).
Thank you, Tanishq, for trying to stand your ground, this time around, and for continuing to put the woman’s perspective and choice on priority.