Shekhar Kapur and #HashTagsThatWillBackfire

Yesterday, Bollywood (and Hollywood) director Shekhar Kapur was the rage on Twitter, thanks to his creating an aggressive and provocative hashtag, #adswedontbuy. By early evening, the hashtag was trending – and was the #1 in India, and we, at Firstpost, decided to have a look at why. A quick search for the hashtag showed a lot of emotion and outpouring fuelled by the hashtag – but little substance, and I wrote a critical piece on Kapur’s ‘effort’. For the benefit of those who came in late, here’s what I wrote . [caption id=“attachment_260760” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Yesterday, director Shekhar Kapur was the rage on Twitter, thanks to his creating an aggressive and provocative hashtag, #adswedontbuy. Reuters”]  [/caption] This is the tweet that started it off: “To stop Advertising proffesionals from treating us like mindless consumers am starting #Adswedontbuy. Pl tweet every ad u dont believe.” Later, Kapur tweeted, “Power of social media v can force advertising 2 tel us truth rather thn makin us feel stupid, add to #adswedontbuy n make ur voice heard.” So, despite the malaprop of a hashtag (Kapur should have said, perhaps, #adsthatareirresponsible), Kapur’s rant, one guesses, is against the lack of truth in advertising or the dangers of advertising making people buy products or services they should not be buying. Those are issues that I would have joined forces with Kapur on. Firstpost has written about the need for checking irresponsible advertising a number of times, and these opinions and reports can be seen here . The last straw is when Kapur says this: “Fr years Advertising has targeted us, now v r targeting dem n saying v r nt stupid even if ur market research firms say v r #adswedontbuy.” Kapur should understand that human beings have fairly decent memories, and at 51, I still haven’t been ravaged by Alzheimer’s. Why do I remember some print ads that Kapur modelled for? And I realise that the Internet’s awesome ability to remember is infinitely better than mine – and I find this gem: [caption id=“attachment_260756” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Image courtesy: 8ate.blogspot.in”]  [/caption] Yup, that’s the man with the lofty ideals and principles, Shekhar Kapur, helping sell cigarettes to the gullible. You can see more details about this ad here. Kapur’s hashtag and his modelling stint with Wills are not made for each other. Or imagine this one: Shekhar Kapur directs an ad for Schweppes – starring Nicole Kidman, Arjun Rampal and Latika from Slumdog Millionaire. You can view the ad here. I’ll refrain from commenting on the ad, but take a look at the rediff.com view here. It’s a bit difficult supporting the man who has modelled for a cigarette brand – and directed a commercial for a carbonated beverage — in his rant against irresponsible advertising and against Coke, a beverages brand. It must be more embarrassing when one learns that in more than 20 countries, including India, Schweppes is bottled by Coca Cola, the company that he finds makes #adswewontbuy. Maybe Kapur should think of a new hashtag: #HashTagsThatWillBackfire