Hum mein hai hero: Anna group hijacks Hero jingle

On 16 August, Hero MotoCorp launched their new corporate campaign , featuring an ‘anthem’ that AR Rahman sang, based on the company’s new tagline, Hum mein hai hero. [caption id=“attachment_63266” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Over the past few days, Anna Hazare has been the cynosure of all eyes, and there were many who saw him as their hero. Reuters”]  [/caption] Over the past few days, as Anna Hazare was the cynosure of all eyes, there were many who saw Hazare as their hero. Inspired by his fast and the consequent arrest, thousands of Indians felt that Anna was their voice, the one who stood up for all that was wrong in the political system. So they took the song from the Hero commercial, and overlaid it on a montage of images of Anna Hazare and the protest images, with results like this one: Unintended gains for Hero MotoCorp, Law & Kenneth, (the agency that created the TVC) Anurag Kashyap (the director), and  AR Rahman – a viral which will certainly get spectacular hits on Youtube. But before they exult, Hero needs to be reminded that this could be a double-edged sword. The song may be used in the context of a person who may not do the brand any good – and there’s nothing Hero MotoCorp could do. What happens, for example, if a Shiv Sena sympathiser uses this to pay tribute to Bal Thackeray? Or a Trinamool supporter morphs images of Mamata Banerjee? That’s the problem with real virals. They go out of control.