If you get stoned

Grace under adversity, and unsung heroes.

What I've liked
Crises, or should I say Episodes that Provoke a Public Questioning of Credibility, hit almost everyone in business. Be it worms in chocolates, batteries exploding in laptops or reports of pesticides in cola, ever so often the consumer's comfortable little bubble of faith is shattered, leaving marketers desperate to salvage their credibility. It's like a rite of passage for which everyone has to steel himself. The competition may fan the flames, even as onlookers join the chorus in this grand tragic opera. How you choose to respond when the world stones your beloved product speaks a lot about your character and fibre as a person or corporation.

The Pepsi ad that appeared straight off the bat in response to its crisis was a sound move that was dignified in its articulation. This ad was refreshingly celebrity-free, which in a strange way added to the gravity of the message. It had no one less than the chairman of the company himself standing up for the product on national television, declaring: "Pepsi bilkul safe hain ... iss baat ki personal guarantee mein leta hoon." It did not gush, nor overpromise, but in a quiet and understated manner it became the calm centre amidst the storm raging around it.

What I've learned
The Unsung Hero
This, dear readers, is my official protest on record "" I believe that we fathers have always been given the short end of the stick in popular entertainment. Just think about it: it has always been the mothers who have been painted as the true heroes in a family. The dad is invariably the bad or not-so-great guy. He is a ladies' man or a greedy, money-craving lunatic, or a harsh, unbending parent or sometimes just a bumbling caricature of a human being.

Not fair. It is time that this trend be reversed. Truthfully, it was a Father's Day card that made me sit up and think what a wonderful set of people we fathers truly are. Even I had become slowly brainwashed into mutely accepting our second-class citizenship within the family structure.

And to think fathers, in reality, are such heroes. I remember tripping and falling into a well when I was five years old, while I was reaching out to pluck some flowers for my mother. After sinking and surfacing twice, which is supposed to be the final stages of death by drowning, my father came rushing out of the house at the sound of my cries, dove in like Superman, and rescued me from sure death "" to have me sitting here writing this column today. Every time my daughter's car coughs and splutters, I am the first person she calls. Taps spring a leak: "call Papa", snake in the garden: "call Papa", broke a traffic light: "call Papa"...what can I say, a superhero's job never ends. And yet, there we are, splashed across the silver screen as objects of mirth.

Not fair, I say again.

Well, at least we have the card companies on our side. Thank you, dear sirs, for without you we would pass through this life as unsung heroes. Happy Diwali!

agkbrandconsult@yahoo.com
For AGKspeak archives, log on to
www.agkonline.com