"market-mantra" Shockvertising : A Funny Story

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Looking back to 2020, it was a crazy pandemic struck year with thousand trending stories. Among them, one of the burning trending's that took the media on a whirl in early October is the Tanishq Ekatvam Ad Commercial. The ad featuring a cross cultural baby shower breaking the social norms of religious barriers. Unfortunately, the ad was taken down soon after with back lashes and a tag of "Love Jihad".


*Link - Tanishq Ekatvam

Little did we realize in the hustle and bustle of offending Indian sentiments, that Tanishq with this so-called controversial ad successfully positioned itself on the top of our minds and that my friend we can announce as "Shock Advertising" or "Shockvertising".

By definition, Shock Advertising or Shockvertising is a type of advertising that, "deliberately, rather than inadvertently, startles and offends its audience by violating norms for social values and personal ideals.

United Colors of Benetton being a pioneer in Shockvertising since 1965, witnessed whooping sales resulting in Benetton's chain of shops hitting 7000 worldwide by 1993. Their main mode of attraction was obscene intriguing images breaking various social conducts. Following their footsteps in the later years many companies embraced Shockvertising to enhance their Sales numbers.




As years passed by, Shockvertising unveiled itself in various creative modes. Hence, lets check a few classic modes of Shockvertising which triggered mass sentiments and whooped up sales figures in millions in the recent past.

Breaking Social Norms: Being a South Asian following our million years old heritage and culture it took us a lot of time to digest concepts of "love is love", "live-in" etc. But, with globalization hitting at the puberty of our modernization we got introduced to Shockvertising.

Anouk, an Indian clothing brand back in 2015 even before the legalization of 377 Act presented us an advertisement framing the concept of Same sex partners, homosexuality eventually glamourizing the LGBTQ community and welcoming them to be one of us.


*Link - Anouk, Bold is Beautiful

Vicks, back in 2017 came up with a beautiful ad featuring a bond between transgender mother and adopted daughter. An ad that will be remembered for generations for its emotional touch against all odds of a so called perfect society. Throwing limelight on the concept of inclusivity, this ad created quite a hype for the brand.


*Link - Vicks, #touchofcare

Intriguing and Obscene Images: According to psychology, images which scare you, shock you creates a permanent impression in your mind. And Organizations like Burger King, PETA took this concept real seriously with their campaigns.

Speaking about Burger King's no preservative campaign or PETA's obnoxious images promoting veganism and protecting animal rights, these companies took their ad game to a completely different dimension. 



*Link - PETA, Behind the leather

Sex Sells: From years of global research, one rock solid conclusion that has been reached is "Sex sells". Sensuality happens to be the most attractive magnet to human race for generations. Just like Item numbers in Bollywood has created its own fan base, in the same way sex appeal has literally rocked the advertisement world. 

Calvin Klein, being one among the many players has prioritized Sex Appeal to be their most featured theme in their Advertisements. From bold images chilling the spine of the orthodox society to video commercials widening the sexual spectrum, Calvin Klein is definitely wining the race against time. 



*Link - Calvin Klein Jeans Fall 2015

The above are few of the many examples, where Shockvertising has seeped its way up to success. But the "Funny thing" about this particular mode of advertising is no matter how many heads it turn and what percentage of the mass it offends, it always creates a top of the mind presence and eventually triggers the sales numbers. Hence, we can reach the conclusion - 

"To keep buzzing in the market, keep your controversies on."

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