Bhajji needs to grin and bear it

Vijay Mallya has told the Times of India that the Harbhajan Singh spoof ad, which has resulted in Harbhajan’s mother sending a legal notice to United Spirits Limited to withdraw the commercial, will continue to air. “It was not meant to attack Harbhajan Singh personally. It was just a spoof between two brands. We have received a long-winded legal notice and our lawyers are studying it,” Mallya told TOI. [caption id=“attachment_43667” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Bhajji has slapped a legal notice on UB Group. Screengrab/youtube.com”]  [/caption] Harbhajan had originally done a commercial for the Royal Stag surrogate Mega Cricket, where he urges viewers to ‘Make it Large’. Harbhajan leads by example, making it large himself. The offending piece of communication by United Spirits Limited is for the McDowell surrogate McDowell’s No 1 Platinum Soda, which depicts a bumbling, low-IQ Harbhajan look alike misunderstanding the phrase ‘Make it Large’ – and Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (in the flesh, not a look alike) showing viewers what the phrase should mean. You can have a look at the two commercials below: While Mallya’s reaction suggests that this dispute will finally meander in the courts, the big gainers will be both Royal Stag and McDowell No 1. The Internet, twitter and news TV were all abuzz with the controversy all of yesterday, and, this morning, the newspapers have taken over – the unpaid PR accruing to both brands the resultant gain. Mallya is probably safe here; spoofs and parodies have been fair game – and there’s nothing in the McDowell TVC which demeans or denigrates Royal Stag. Competing brands taking potshots at each other is nothing new. Apple has been taking potshots at the ‘PC’ (and not necessarily Microsoft) for a long, long time. Spoofs work best when they can leverage existing popular content or the familiarity of characters or celebrities. Pizza Hut did this brilliantly when they piggybacked on the stupendous success of naukri.com’s Hari Sadu commercial: Spoof ads could mean trouble if they take potshots at direct competition. So could this, finally, mean trouble? Not if you know the law. It’s not a whiskey brand spoofing another whiskey brand – alcohol advertising is banned in India, as you know – and neither of the commercials in question is technically for an alcohol brand. As in so many instances currently, the Internet has the last word. “I don’t understand why McDowell’s No.1 Platinum, which is a soda, needs to spoof the ad of Royal Stag, which is clearly mega cricket gear,” asked “@rameshsrivats on twitter”.