Over Thanksgiving, Amazon released a commercial that is attracting attention on both sides of the Atlantic. It features two elderly clerics, an imam and a priest, meeting to exchange good wishes over the holiday season. As the two old friends – who are actual clerics, not actors – sit down to chat over a coffee and rise from their armchairs after the meeting, they ruefully exchange glances over their stiff knees. When they part, they access their Amazon Prime apps and send each other identical gifts the next day; knee braces that enable the priest to kneel with ease in front of the altar and the imam to prostrate himself more nimbly in prayer in the mosque.
It is a sensitively shot ad, quietly humorous and quite free of mawkishness. In the easy friendship between the imam – no resemblance to the radical cleric of popular perception – and the Christian priest, no one would have missed the message against the shrill anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic rhetoric that has triumphed in the American discourse after November 8.
There is a back story to this, centred on the notoriously thin-skinned Donald Trump’s reaction to Amazon promoter Jeff Bezos’ criticisms to the then Republican nominee’s crassly divisive ideology, such as it is. In his turn, Mr Trump accused Amazon of availing of tax shelters (a case of pot and kettle surely), creating an unfair monopoly and vowed to go after the powerful online retailer if he were voted to power.
Well, Mr Trump is now headed for the White House, and Mr Bezos, who stands vulnerable to the new president’s powers, has sent him and his supporters a gentle reminder of basic human values. Of course, mindful of the invective that followed Coca-Cola’s 2014 Super Bowl commercial featuring images of, among others, a head-scarved girl and multiple languages other than just English to showcase America’s multiculturalism, Amazon has retained those comments that reinforce the message on the YouTube link. This is a pity; the diatribes of the sundry wingnuts provide a useful insight into the consummate insecurity of the online bully.
Amazon’s dignified protest – even the most committed bhakt would be hard put to call it anti-national – has drawn comment precisely because it is so rare in the wider corporate world. Indeed, it is hard to think of any corporate house in India that could be quite so courageously dignified in reinforcing similar values that underscore the founding of the modern Indian state 69 years ago, especially when they are suborned. In a climate in which political leaders have few qualms about unleashing the state’s punitive apparatus against even the mildest of critics, it is entirely understandable that corporate leaders hesitate to air their criticisms in public. Consider Ratan Tata’s flip on demonetisation as the day of reckoning in his battle against Cyrus Mistry approaches and the government financial institutions’ support becomes crucial in various EGMs ahead.
It is hard to understand, though, why Indian corporate leaders should choose to prostrate themselves to political leaderships either. Any number of businessmen willingly did so during the Emergency. And that habit has clearly died hard. Recall, for instance, the Ambani brothers’ competitive rhetoric in praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi at those branded jamborees – Make in India, Start-up India and so on and so forth – in the early days of this regime.
Embedding social messaging in a commercial is not an alien concept in the world of Indian advertising. Increasingly, commercials for online retailing, mobile services, financial products and IT hardware have been showcasing the virtues of the independent professional woman, a reassuring counterpoint to the chauvinism that is sadly still rampant in 21st century India. But few companies have chosen the Amazon (or Coca-Cola) route of explicitly countering the mainstreaming of gender, religious and caste prejudice in India, especially when some of these notions have acquired political legitimacy.
The corporate world is no longer a minor player in the Indian economy and, by extension, in society. It should no longer play the “neutral” card. Granted, direct confrontation is immature and ill-advised especially when regimes tend to be as sensitive as those in India, and stakeholder value is still uniquely dependent on the government. But there are myriad constructive ways to register opposition or reinforce values beyond the avalanche of tedious press releases burnishing Corporate Social Responsibility credentials. Amazon’s commercial is a small example of how to go about it, and the magnitude of the message cannot be discounted.
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