A
recent ad for the Bajaj Kawasaki Eliminator paraded
a virtual thesaurus of words that attempted to capture
the inherent spirit of the bike. The words were sexy,
succinct and self-explanatory. Passion, ego, aggressive,
leadership, control, achievement, ambition, supremacy
ardour, individuality were just some of them. While
they sold the bike they also tried to reach the heart
of the largely male audience that would buy the bike.
The ad appeared in The Times of India, which has a
large male readership. Compare this with an A&M
survey amongst young adult males, which asked them
to list their favourite brands.
Brands that hit top score among males between eighteen
and twenty-five: Dettol and Colgate. A toothpaste
and an antiseptic. Not quite what you would expect
from a group that is supposed to be choosing brands
that express attitude, rebellion, generation angst
and identity or failing which at least badge value.
But choose they did.
Comparing the two may be like comparing apples and
oranges. I don’t want to be like the poets of
the metaphysical school who yoked together two disparate
things to create a new thought but between the romance
of the road, its spirit of individualism typified
by Bajaj and the solid traditional cocoon of ‘family
values’ represented by Dettol is wedged the Psyche
of the rather confused but very Indian, new Indian
man. The Indian woman as she straddles generation
W in a space–aspiration continuum has left the
new man a bewildered distance behind. Let’s face
it: For most of the nineties we were the darlings
of the media. And no one had much time for the poor
Indian male. He was still expected to be the chief
earner, he was still expected to make all the big
ticket decisions even if his wife was planning to
leave him and he was still expected to be sensitive
and caring while she decided (to paraphrase a popular
Femina ad that ran a few years ago) whether she was
doing him or doing her.
Mahindra Bolero, a man’s vehicle if there was
any, advertises on a serial called ‘Kkusum’
a weepy story of a young girl who spends valuable
air time weeping and wailing about her kismat. This
could be bad media planning or it could be representative
of the fact that the new confused man is really enjoying
the weepies. Or it could mean that he is taking time
with the family seriously, as part of his Dettol inspired
duties. But he is still the biggest consumer of advertising
and media, he is still valuable to us all and if we
need to talk to him and strategize well in our communication
we need to talk to him.... Err… man to man. Here
are a few strategies:
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Gender
liquidity, the fluid osmosis of gender was
the touchstone of the nineties as men were
compelled to get in touch with their feminine
side
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1. Kill the complete man: The complete man was the
icon of the nineties as he baked, cooked, cleaned,
and was romantic, philosophical and nurturing on call.
Besides being well read, well informed and well hung.
On closer scrutiny he was much more the woman’s
ideal of the perfect male rather than a man’s
man. Gender liquidity, the fluid osmosis of gender
was the touchstone of the nineties as men were compelled
to get in touch with their feminine side. But with
that came some performance anxiety and identity crises
as they faced both, a real and imagined loss of machismo.
Across the world there has been a global ”blokelash”
against the so-called complete man. Bubbas( American
blue collar males), new lads, laddsim are some of
the well documented types and attitudes that represent
this movement against all the attention the media
has been paying to women’s needs. A new generation
of western men tired of sensitivity went back to the
booze and buddyism of the eighties. “The new
zeitgeistism”, said an article in the New York
Times, “is cronyism tempered with modern day
manliness”. Which probably means, the new man
wants his best-friend back to discuss man things with,
even though he doesn’t have the guts to tell
the new woman that. But then I suppose it was only
fair: if she had time out with the girls, if she had
chick flicks and ate new age food, well, he wanted
gangster films and greasy chips with the boys. A piece
in The Guardian gives us a new type, Paisley boys:
phallic men confident enough about themselves to play
with gender badges i.e. cross dressing, a popular
theme at private parties, wearing ones wife’s
sarong and so on. But these are largely western classifications.
In India, less concerned with individualism, an entire
generation of butter- chicken men continues to eat
butter chicken and drink whiskey with the boys without
realizing that the world changed and came back at
least halfway to where it left them off. The complete
man has done his time. And from a strictly personal
and very politically incorrect view let me say he
was a tad bit boring.
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Men
want to connect with men and this is a theme
not exploited fully in advertising. Hindi
movies have celebrated the blood brotherhood
of men for ages but the theme has not travelled
well outside
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2.
Male bonding: Men want to connect with men and this
is a theme not exploited fully in advertising. Hindi
movies have celebrated the blood brotherhood of men
for ages but the theme has not travelled well outside.
Father-son bonding, a distant relationship in Indian
families is also a theme begging to be explored. The
film ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham’ tried the
papa-beta weepies but in the moment of truth in advertising
it would be advisable to stick to humour. There are
so many facets of this relationship that can be explored.
Male bonding with friends is now showing up in ads.
Signature whiskey has been running ads that look at
moments of achievement celebrated with male friends
but it is now getting formatted and predictable. “Creating
communities”, says Mahesh Chauhan who heads the
Castrol business at Ogilvy and has spent time working
on all-male brands, “is a good way to reach out
to the new Indian man.” And we see pockets in
different parts of urban India: men gathering together
to watch formula One (a growing cult with the Indian
man), Enfield users clubs, pumping iron at he gym,
cricket. Marketing experts will need to look at these
communities and nurture new communities, which give
men a sense of space and unquestioned male identity.
Unlike the old liquor company mailers that taught
men how to pour whiskey or how to stock a bar or clip
a cigar i.e. all the so called symbols of having arrived,
the new communities are younger, more aware and more
experimental .And they are looking at ‘boys clubs’
for bonding not necessarily for signifying success.
3.
Not sex but the romance of life: Yes, sex sells
and fantasies do too but the Indian man, unlike
his counterparts in other parts of the world, is
the quintessential romantic. He romances life, the
song of the road, the woman he cannot forget, unrequited
love, the romance of being a loner, unexpected encounters,
acts of connection that reinforce his own credo
to him. These are stories waiting to be told in
thirty seconds. And you can narrate them through
poetry, music, song; he will buy them even if his
life revolves around the family and paying off the
monthly EMI. Romantic themes resonate through all
our movies. Bajaj Calibre ran an excellent commercial
on this theme but very few followed suit. In fact,
the entire body of Bajaj work put together, will
paint a very clear picture of the New Indian male
and is worth reading as a case study but in another
article.
4.
Distant worlds: The Indian male is a keen voyeur,
observing distant worlds and new ways of doing things.
Little surprise that National Geographic and BBC
cut across all socio-economic classes. New sports,
new adventures, new discoveries fascinate him even
though he may never go beyond being an armchair
traveller in this life but he wants to be informed.
I suppose we have it in our blood somewhere. The
Sindhis control trade in Gibraltar and Honkong,
Mauritius was built by Biharis, San Jose is full
of Telengana techies, California orchards are owned
by Sikhs whose fathers sailed on the Kama Gatu Maru
from Punjab and Birmingham is a suburb of Bhatinda.
5.
Indian identity: Nothing is as close to the Indian
man’s heart as the question of identity. While
this is a larger philosophical issue beyond the
purview of advertising it is a growing need that
must be answered. Lagaan, Gadar and Ma Tujhe Salaam,
popular films that are distinctly nationalistic.
‘Liberalization’s brats’ a cohort
defined in an Org-Marg survey were the ones who
would go out and show the world the new India and
also represent its neo-nationalist face. Well they
are here already. ‘Latinity’ is the South
American search for identity. It is a cult of virility,
machismo and also shared culture. Bubbas represent
a very real American blue-collar worker whose lifestyle
has now become chic and emulated by Wall Street
yuppies and post dot commers. The bubba eats basic
food, drinks beer, wears jeans, watches formula
one, goes fly fishing which means he is the silent
outdoorsy type and what’s more – American
men want to be like him. In India most of our assumptions
are colured by global classifications. But the tapori
is a big hit as is the prince of taporis, Govinda.
And it is now yuppie chic to work the dance floor
Govinda-style or sport the Aamir-attitude a la the
recent Coke commercial. ‘Bhai-speak’,
the lingo of the underworld has been a great vocabulary
enhancer and commercials for Midday and spots for
MTV have spoofed this effectively. Of course we
don’t have bhai- rap like gangsta rap but perhaps
that needs to be looked into. Like the Mafia has
become sanitized, glamourised and part of mainstream
American entertainment, the bhai is soon going to
become our favourite sitcom character.
The Versace vedantic or the hip Hindu is another
male type showing up in the media even though advertising,
shorn of any religious trappings, will steer clear
of any such portrayal but they are a very real part
of the Indian male type. We may not see cool kar-sevaks
in communication but as spirituality gets more chic
an entire industry will build itself around it whatever
its hues.
So here he is the new Indian man. Not always politically
correct. Not always sensitive. Still looking for
a clear identity, still chasing his ideal woman
and a bit confused in his relationship management
with the woman in his life. Talking to him will
be a challenge. You may have to rock the boat a
bit. You may have to shake him up to recognize how
much he has changed. You may not win international
awards as you look increasingly inwards to reach
out to him but if you can, like Bajaj, become Mr.
Bharat’s dil ki dhadkan, you will have a brand
you can show off to the world. And a man the world
may want to watch.
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