Dravid: Indira Nagar Ka Gunda
Dravid and Gunda, Perhaps a good example of oxymoron. Rahul Dravid – the evergreen and undisputed ‘Wall’ of Indian cricket team has been found rampaging the streets like a typical tapori. He is captured breaking side glasses of cars, honking, and fighting in road rage. Dravid, who command a great amount of respect from all the quarters for his gentleman-ship and a spotless career envy of many. How come the soft spoken, simple, and gentle person become a Gunda?
Well, CRED has put an ad showing a complete opposite image of Dravid. The ad has got the social media on fire, where people with contrasting views are talking about the ad. Most of the popular media also covered the juxtaposition of Dravid image in ads with humor, surprise, and an iota of bewilderment. A section of Netizens (staunch supporters of Dravid) could not digest the Gunda image. CRED has tried innovation in its ads and sometimes failed miserably. The past failures exacerbated the situation among the loyal supporters of Dravid who attacked the brand. However, a majority of online junta got the pun and dark humor embedded in the small ad and became the viral spreaders of the ad. A good wide coverage (paid?) also helped CRED to get its few hours of fame as social media trends. This is another example of how brands are taking risks and trying to ride on trends (of IPL) – moment marketing with a twist.
The story did not finish yet. Riding on the trend of “IndiraNagar Ka Gunda“, many brands jumped with their own set of creativity. Again, it looks like the well planned strategy and showing PDA in public forum to increase curiosity among users and become part of their conversations.
While Zomato informed its customers that deliveries might be delayed due to an angry gunda on the road, CARS24 offered its help in selling the upgrades to broken cars.
Panasonic promoted ACs to cool down the Gunda and Parle G offered biscuits to turn the Godzilla on the road into a genius.
Pizz hut got the gunda in store with a pizza and Oyo offered a room (despite the ongoing insolvency and bankruptcy cases).
Trivia: find out IMDB Rating of Gunda movie.