Chennai advertisement censors Apple logo
By Techgirl

This is an interesting story about how an Indian super bloggers respected brand name is being used without paying him a paisa. And the Indian super blogger in quite happy with the deal. South India-based Muthoot Group is one of the big success stories in India.  The Muthoot Group has business interests in Finance, Healthcare, Education, Hospitality and Real Estate

The Muthoot business group enjoys the same business credibility as the respected TATAs.

Last year, the Muthoot Group launched the thinking persons radio station ‘Chennai Live 104.8 FM’.  Chennai Live was set up to target the information and entertainment needs of Chennai’s ‘intelligent’ people.  As Chennai is one of the most important tech hubs in India, it has an audience for such radio stations. Chennai in South India is also one of the most livable cities in the country.

Chennai Live 104.8 hired internationally acclaimed advertising company Ogilvy & Mather to promote them.  Ogilvy & Mather are one of the top dogs in the advertising world and charge substantial amounts for their coveted expertise.

A business deal between Chennai Live and Ogilvy & Mather.

Ogilvy & Mather then approached super blogger and Tech Guru, Kiruba Shankar, to be featured in the ad along with 9 other men and women who enjoy the respect of the masses.

Now Kiruba has blogged about how Ogilvy & Mather told him “that this was not a celebrity endorsement and that I will not be paid for it!  I guess they wanted to make things clear”

Then for some mysterious reason, the Ogilvy & Mather team even air brushed out the Apple Logo of the computer shown with Kiruba in the final advertisement.

Am I missing something?  From my perspective, this seems to be a celebrity endorsement for a fabulous radio station. In this case, most of the celebrities have credibility to capitalize on.  Also, what is the point of air brushing the Apple Logo out of any advertisement?  Is it so that the attention is not diverted from the radio station?  Or is it that Bangalore-based Ogilvy & Mather has rival computer maker Lenovo as one of its big clients?  Something does not make sense here.

While Kiruba may have been happy to volunteer his services, should the advertising company have made a donation to charities nominated by the celebrities in the advertisement? After all, at most levels this is a commercial deal.

All such details and business arrangements would have remained secret if Kiruba had not blogged about it. 

What do you think?

Techgoss note:  Techgirl is a senior Tech journalist who reports on the IT, KPO and KPO Sectors for a leading media house.  In her spare time, she dabbles in satire in her blog
http://techgirltalk.blogspot.com