ADVANCED ANALYTICAL SKILLS IN COMMUNICATION (SECTION A)

SCANDALS AS A MARKETING TOOL

Term Paper
Group 3
Ejas Mudar Gundu Shiva Kumar Himanshu Periwal

INTRODUCTION
This paper tries to examine and analyse different cases where scandals, specifically scandals involving sexuality, have been used successfully as a marketing tool. We start off with an analysis of the infamous 1994 CK One Ad, and then try to draw parallels with such incidents in marketing and art history. We also try to extrapolate this concept into a formal marketing technique, with examples of where the technique could be used.

CK ONE AD, 1994

The Ad (pictured above), for the newly launched unisex cologne, first appeared in the September edition of Glamour Magazine in 1994. Since then, this ad, and the whole campaign has attained cult status amongst marketing experts.

THE PRODUCT

ck one, was a unisex cologne. This was a unique approach in the fragrance industry where products were specifically designed and targeted to men and women separately. But with its name and tagline (for a man or a woman) ck one made it clear that this product was a distinct break from the traditional concepts of fragrance as a gender identity. This break from traditions was further underscored by their unique marketing channel; the product was sold in record stores (alongside albums by Nirvana) instead of traditional convenience stores or speciality stores. The cologne was packaged in a utilitarian bottle that resembled water bottles carried by soldiers. Overall, the product exhibited an aura of being authentically grungy and minimalistic.
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THE AD
The Ad features multiple stark black and white photographs conjoined together. The photographs were taken by the iconic Steven Meisel , who has shot campaigns for such big names like Versace, Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana and Louis Vuitton, among others. The photographs feature several people standing together in various poses and states of dress and un-dress. By posing everyone in front of a clear white background, the ad makes it clear that these models are posed, and not friends hanging out on a quiet evening. The ad being black and white and sharply disjointed further draws the viewers attention to the fact that this is just a posed photograph and not a depiction of a still life scene. It is also a subtle nod towards the ads art -history influence and the presence of deeper symbolisms. The Ads symbolism is further accentuated by its style. The photographs are taken in the distinctive style of Richard Avedon. Avedon did not conform to the standard technique of taking studio fashion photographs, where models stood emotionless and seemingly indifferent to the camera. He was instead renowned for his stark, icon-making black and white portraits featuring more naturalistic shots of people moving about, gesticulating, and talking. Specifically, the ad has echoes of Avedons one particularly famous photograph, Andy Warhol and the factory crowd (pictured below). This photograph of Warhol and various friends and assistants in various states of un-dress and comprises multiple separate images placed together. By photographing the CK One ad in the style of Avedons Warhol gang photograph, Meisel superimposed one icon Andy Warhol onto another, CK One.
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The models featured in the ad are multi-ethnic, multi-racial and multi-cultural. The only known face in the ad is that of supermodel Kate Moss. In fact, the whole ad is anchored on her presence and she acts as guide and interpreter for the viewer . This is possible because she is a white heterosexual woman, who is a household name that is familiar and non-intimidating. In this ad, the models that surround Kate Moss can be seen to be traversing the whole spectrum of sexuality and underground culture. Skin heads can be seen side by side with strong black women. Feminine men pose beside women who do not fit the traditional descriptions of feminity. Clearly, the models in the ad can be divided into two categories: the normal (Kate Moss) and the different (everybody else).
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SYMBOLISM OF THE AD
Prima facie, this ad seems to break down gender stereotypes and racial barriers. Even its name can be seen as a symbol of unity in diversity. However, on further analysis, it can be seen that the ad is doing anything but. Every single character except Kate Moss is a caricature. The models have no individualist identity or expression. They are seen as exotics and are present for the purpose of being used or consumed by the viewer. The ad does nothing to challenge prevailing norms of homophobia, racism or sexism. In fact, we can see a white skinhead arguing with a black woman, physically engaging with her space, using his mass to make his point. They are portrayed as natural antagonists, playing into cultural stereotypes of racial and gender relations. The ad is more interested in selling this difference to its audience. Kate Moss is used as anchor for this as it allows viewers to consume the exotic with no risk to their own self-identity. Mosss expression indicates that she does not belong in this world of difference; she seems bored and unaffected by the others in the ad. She is with them but not of them, she emerges as a voyeur, she looks and asks that we look at her looking. The ad attempts to maintain the status quo for their own monetary profit. This strategy makes sense when we understand who the ad, and by extension the product, is targeted at. Contrary to initial appearances, the ad is not aimed at the members of the various races, cultures and sexuality depicted in the ad. Instead, the ad is aimed at the young, heterosexual, well to do, Caucasian demographic. Commercially, this makes sense as this is the biggest and the most impressionable group and if successful, could lead to large sales. The media attention that this ad gained due to its depiction of homosexuals and other alternate cultures which were seen as provocative and against the marketing and media norms of the time, also helped ck one gain valuable public mind share. The ad uses the images and style of rebellion to market their products. This is designed to appeal to the target audience, who sees rebellion and underground culture, by the fact of their being different and exotic, as being, cool and appealing. Thus purchase of a product that denotes and promotes these exotic cultures is seen as their support of said culture. In fact, consumers believe that by consuming said product, they are being part of that culture. That is, the ad is telling consumers that by using ck one, the users are being a part of the alternate culture, unlike their peers who buy normal traditional cologne. From the consumers point of view, it is m uch

easier to buy a product (say, cologne) and gain the products symbolic attributes than to change their lifestyle or appearance overnight. This is part of a much larger marketing paradox; consumers buy mass produced products to symbolize nonconformity. It is believed that by consuming certain brand names, they are able to successfully differentiate themselves from their peers. This strategy was very successfully used by Apple in their 1984 ad where they claimed that by using their product, the year 1984 will not be like 1984 (the book by George Orwel) where the world was constantly being monitored and controlled by Big Brother. Clearly Big Brother was a metaphor for IBM and the prevailing culture. What the ad was saying was buy our product and non-conform from the mass produced majority culture. The fact that the product itself was a mass produced product made no difference. The same tactic was used more recently by Samsung against Apple themselves in their iSheep ad but to a much lesser success.
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PRECEDENCE OF USING SCANDALS

CALVIN KLIEN
We can see that throughout history, this strategy of using provocation to gain the public mindshare for an otherwise commonplace product was used extensively in varying degrees of success. Calvin Klien themselves used this strategy many times. In 1979, Calvin Klien published ads depicting a then 14 year old Brooke Shields in sexually suggestive poses, stating Nothing comes between me and my Calvins. Many networks refused to air the ad, but for Calvin, buzz around the entire campaign, including the too-sexy-for-TV spot, contributed to sales of $2 million per month. Then, in 1995, they went even further, using even younger in their ads, which led to investigations by the Justice Department on charges of child pornography again Calvin Klien. The charges were later dropped, but all the publicity directly helped CKs bottomline.
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ANTONIO FEDERICI ICE CREAM

This brand of ice cream intended to gain attention of their target group via an unconventional method: scandalous advertising to promote their ice cream. The positioning of their product is Ice Cream is our Religion and the ad campaign sought to reinforce it through this method. This involved using controversial posters that show a nun and a priest getting intimate, and other poses which you dont usually identify with catholic priests and nuns. One of them showed a picture of a pregnant nun with the caption Immaculately Conceived Ice cream is our religion. This was a mockery of the virgin birth of Christ. Though this campaign was meant for the British it created a furore in many countries and in some cases, to such an extent that Britain even banned this promotional campaign. The Italian company had the conception that the ad represented development of their ice cream by gently satirizing religion not to an extent that followers take offence, but just enough to get their attention. They also inten ded to highlight the Churchs old world attitude

towards gay marriage by including a poster of two male priests (of different races) who are about to kiss. This is just one example of the many, no-longer-relevant principles of the Church that they satirized. They also timed the release of the posters to coincide with the visit of the now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI to London, to release the posters in London. This was done to ensure that they gained maximum visibility a la the Bahraini protesters using the Formula 1 race as a vehicle to gain international coverage of their struggle.

LADY GAGA
Lady Gaga is another such marketer. Lady Gaga ifs the richest star under the age of thirty. A lot more things have helped her become that she is today other than music. All her singles are no.1 chartbusters and she has been one of the most influential pop stars in the recent times. She always tries to be relevant and happening, as would anyone want to be in the glam field so much so that even Google suggests controversy as soon as you type Lady Gaga. The purpose behind this is a core marketing concept-visibility. For your product to sell your product should be visible in the best possible shelf in a store. Lady Gaga is an expert in doing this. She knows what the press will print. By picking up the most burning issues and the most happening issues she tries to grab that coveted shelf in the store so that every customer that passes by picks her product up. There are tons of controversies in which Lady Gaga has been involved in . One interesting product attribute is the packaging. You wont buy a product unless it looks good and colourful. So in order to grab more eyes, Lady Gaga has a seemingly weird fashion sense. Lady Gaga introduced new ways of using meat when she turned up in a dress made of meat- the infamous Meat Dress. Apart from wide coverage in the media, she also got huge opposition from animal rights groups. In her defence Lady Gaga said that the meat dress her bisexuality subtly. Lady Gaga has been eloquent about her bisexuality wherever she went. In times where the US military is following DADT policy about sexual orientation Lady Gaga feels that the entire world should know about her sexual orientation. While LGBT movements were gaining momentum all over the world, she has been the only pop star whos declared her support for the
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movement. Once in Mexico during a show, Lady Gaga blasted the anti- immigration laws of the USA. No one has so strongly supported the Latinos ever since Simon Bolivar. The fact that she had to sell more tickets for her show had perhaps little to do with the timing and geographical position of her show.
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The infamous Gun bra dress performance coincided with a gun shooting incident in a university in USA where people were killed. It could be Lady Gagas way to protest against such incident . Her songs are usually not in the genre where many other female singers are famous. They are span over sex, violence and power which are intimate to a large part of the crowd but often drawing attention. An example for this can be her latest Burqa song in which she sexualizes Muslim women whilst she was praising Judas in another.
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Leaking singles to the loyal fan base which tend to generate initial buzz and word of mouth publicity had gotten her albums fantastic openings.

DOUARD MANET
A cursory examination of Art history shows that this strategy was used extensively even in Art. In fact, there is even a term for this strategy, Succs de scandale. One of the most famous examples of this is from douard Manet. In 1863, a then unknown artist Manet exhibited his painting Picnic on the Grass and Olympia at the Salon des Refus after Paris Salon rejected it on moral and artistics grounds. Picnic on the Grass depicted a nude woman casually lunching with two fully dressed men, which was an affront to the propriety of the time. The shock value was further accentuated by the familiarity of the figures. Manet's wife, Suzanne Leenhoff, and his favorite model, Victorine Meurent, both posed for the nude woman. The two men are Manet's brother Gustave Manet and his future brother-in-law, Ferdinand Leenhoff.
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Like the ck one ad discussed above, the roughly painted background lacks depth giving the viewer the impression that the scene is not taking place outdoors, but in a studio. This impression is reinforced by the use of broad "photographic" light, which casts almost no shadows; the lighting of the scene, in fact, is inconsistent and unnatural. The style of the painting breaks with the academic traditions of the time. He did not try to hide the brush strokes; the painting, indeed, looks unfinished in some parts of the scene. Once again drawing a parallel with the ck one ad, Manet echoes the well respected and iconic engraving The Judgement of Paris (inspired by the artist Raphael), thus superimposing one icon, Raphael, onto another, Manet. Olympia depicted a nude woman, identifiable as a prostitute, reclining while a fully clothed servent presents her with flowers. Conservatives condemned the work as "immoral" and "vulgar." Manet had again paraphrased a respected work by a Renaissance artist. The pose of Olympia was based on Titian's Venus of Urbino (1538). The painting is also reminiscent of Francisco Goya's painting The Nude Maja (1800). The scandal caused by the exhibition of these paintings was almost single handedly responsible for making Manet a household name. Similiarly, numerous other examples of strategically using scandals to gain mindshare can also be seen in art history.
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HYPOTHETICAL EXAMPLE FOR WHERE THE STRATEGY CAN BE USED

In the present context, scandal marketing has been used my some celebrities to create a viral effect. This sort of promotion would generally not be possible without such scandal marketing. For instance, Akshay Kumar, the Bollywood star, promoted a new collection of Levi jeans by getting his jeans unbuttoned on a ramp in public . This led to a lot of criticisms about this incident in the media. But on the other hand, the product got promoted very well with minimal financial implications. In another incident, Shilpa Shetty was casually embraced by Richard Gere on the television show Big Brother in 2007 . It led to the media creating a lot of news around Shilpa Shetty and blowing things out of proportion. Though a non-existential scandal, it led to a lot of marketing for the Big Brother show in India and led to an increased viewership in the first season of Big Boss, its Indian version. In yet another case, Poonam Pandey, whose celebrity status was non-existent, claimed to get a nude photoshoot if the Indian Cricket Team won the world cup. Since this was very provocative for the Indian media as well as viewers/readers, her news spread like fire and she became famous overnight. Thus, she used the strategy of scandalous communication to become famous and built her brand value from almost scratch. With reference to the above context, two hypothetical examples for scandal marketing are presented below: 1) Sushmita Sen, the smart and beautiful Indian movie star, who has not been cast in movies off late, could come out in the public to defend live-in relationships since she was believed to be a part of
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one . It would draw a lot of media attention given that the High Courts decision on pre -marital sex has been in the media limelight recently. And once the media attention is sought, she would be called in for TV news interviews, more press releases, as guest in TV shows etc. This would in turn increase her brand value as a celebrity and she could reclaim her lost spot as a high profile movie star. 2) Malaika Arora, the super-hit Indian movie actress from early 2000s, has lost the acting charm as per most movie viewers. But she is still a very good dancer and in order to regain her lost brand value, she could do a provocative item song that could become instant hit with the masses . Doing so will help her get a good media coverage and most importantly rise higher among her competitors. This way she could command higher price for her future acting or performances. In managerial context, the advantages received through scandal marketing help people / companies to regain brand value, charge higher for the same product/service, get low cost media coverage and outrun the competition. This has also been regarded as controversial and unconventional communication strategy since it could violate social, religious and political norms of a country or society. This communication strategy might cause Disregard for tradition, law or practice when the communication strategy does not regard the local tradition of the county or a regional law has not been followed. Such as, the famous Sardar jokes that mock them in various ways are a disregard for their community but they have become famous and common through their being different from other type of jokes. Defiance of the social or moral code when the communication strategy is not socially or morally acceptable in the country / society at large. Such as, the famous singer Yo Yo Honey Singh writes provocative and socially repulsive lyrics in nature which are demeaning for women . It has raised alarms among many social organizations. However, he continues to enjoy the top spot in music charts because of the sheer differentiating nature of the songs among the Indian youth. Display of images/words that are horrifying or repulsive when the communication strategy uses words or images that are repulsive in nature. Such as, the Get unhooked anti -smoking campaign
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which caused fear and distress in children. These ads displayed images of smokers' faces and lips being hooked with fish hooks to illustrate how they were 'hooked' on cigarettes. Though they became very famous but received hundreds of complaints for being offensive.

CONCLUSION
Thus, we see that all through history, scandals have been used by various marketers and artists as a tool of gaining mindshare and popularity. This technique can be a highly effective communication strategy, despite being unconventional or highly controversial, if used correctly. If this technique is not used strategically, not only will the communication be ineffective, even the brand may suffer irrevocably.

REFERENCES

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/08/fashion/08CALVIN.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&pagewanted=&adxnnlx=1378927230UIOxlarFxWy/tBPj038Sgg ii http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Meisel iii http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Avedon iv Solomon, 1994 v Critical visual analysis, Jonathan E. Schroeder vi Berger, 1972 vii https www.youtube.com watch v j I4 RfHSJo viii https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DateFKa5j_c ix http://adage.com/article/rewind/rewind-brooke-shields-calvin-klein-ads-back-day/238239/ x http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopmusic/8463228/Lady-Gaga-Top-10-Controversies.html xi http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/05/lady-gaga-secrets_n_3706906.html xii http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-broken-heart-and-violent-fantasies-of-lady-gaga-20100708 xiii http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2013/08/lady-gaga-shows-cultural-appropriation-newold-way-sellsingle/68055/ xiv http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succ%C3%A8s_de_scandale xv http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympia_(Manet) xvi http://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/2008/aug/220808-akshaykumar-steamy-commercial.htm xvii http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-448932/Kisses-Richard-Gere-plunge-Shilpa-Shetty-India-row.html xviii http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/1409977/report-my-relationship-with-sushmita-sen-disturbed-my-parentsmudassar-aziz xix http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-09-18/news-interviews/33903821_1_reality-show-talent-huntdabangg xx http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/honey-singh-offensive-lyrics/1/240219.html xxi http://www.4ni.co.uk/northern_ireland_news.asp?id=61888