CNN-IBN, Real-ly now?

While everyone was going blue in the face over The Times Of India selling off vast swathes of itself to advertisers – CNN-IBN did one better. They decided to indulge in the oldest marketing gimmick ever, one which Karan Johar, Aamir Khan and Balaji Telefilms have been doing forever. And been called out on many times over.

It’s the hit-the-viewer-over-head-with-a-sledgehammer product placement.  On CNN-IBN’s breakfast show, the product placement managed to be of more interest than the news. Since it is a breakfast show, some marketing prodigy at Dabur must have come up with the brainwave that instead of advertising on the channel – which can be so darned expensive – why not just have the two anchors sit next to a carton of Dabur’s Real Orange Juice and have two full glasses of the juice next to them as well. That would look so natural. And people watching the bulletin would suddenly find themselves gravitating towards Real juices in the supermarket, and wouldn’t know why. The entire placement would have been a little more effective if the anchors had bothered to take a sip from them. And even if they had done so, the carton sitting bang in the middle of the table was a bit much.  The anchors might as well have worn t-shirts with Dabur Real Fruit Juice branding.

I give CNN-IBN an A-for-effort for attempting to indulge in some subtlety and subliminal messaging.  Next time, better luck.

Image courtesy: @rahulgrover88