In A peculiar case of role reversal, it was a particular ad printed in a daily that attracted direct attention towards the latter. Former Bond star Pierce Brosnan modelling for a popular Indian pan masala brand was too much for the Twitterati to handle, and they soon took to social media to reveal how their world had come crashing down.
‘Pierce Brosnan is inviting you to die another day’ read one tweet. ‘My name is bond, *spits pan bahar*, James Bond’, read another.
However, Sambit Mohanty, creative head, DDB Mudra North, the company behind the campaign, says he doesn’t “care two hoots” about the reactions. “Twitter is a minority and isn’t our audience. We are targeting the masses, and the campaign has worked well with them. I received a text from someone who said that he had been a consumer of a rival brand for the past 15 years, but was now glad to switch to our brand. When neither the brand nor Mr Brosnan have any problem with the promotion, why the hell does Twitter have a problem with it?” he questions, seemingly agitated.
Akhil Jain, CEO of the company manufacturing Pan Bahar, feels the adverse reaction has been spurred by the notion that the product contains tobacco and gutka. “We need to educate the masses about the product because non-consumers don’t understand what it is. The selection of Mr Brosnan for our target audience has been criticised, but even if someone doesn’t recognise him, his attitude and style personify success. Those are the traits that we wanted to discuss through this selection,” says Jain.
Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean.