I’m too good to share. What am I? Cadbury’s Temptations or Kashmir?”

In the summer of 2002 , on 15^th Aug. the 55th anniversary of Indian independence , Cadbury made one of the biggest advertising blunders. What they did was they made an ad, promoting company’s temptations brand of chocolates, appeared in the copies of Times of India distributed in and around Bombay which included a map of India, highlighting the state of Jammu Kashmir plus “Azad Kashmir” region the one under Pakistani control.

It read as follows:

”I’m good, I’m tempting. I’m too good to share. What am I? Cadbury’s Temptations or Kashmir?’

A picture portion of the Ad published in Times of India 2002

(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/Cadburys-regrets-controversial-Kashmir-ad/articleshow/19779847.cms)

Reasons for such controversy:

Cadbury made a huge mistake in a sense that it overlooked the perceptions & views of an average Indian national towards Kashmir and what it actually meant to him. Kashmir being a very sensitive issue between India and Pakistan over the past several decades has been the cause of three full fledge wars between the two countries in past. Thousands of soldiers have lost their lives on both sides of the border defending it.This press ad directly intended to offend the sentiments of the public at large.

To good to be shared ?

More badly for Cadbury, the year 2002 was the time when two countries were at the verge of war due to recent dispute of Extremist led attacks on the Indian National Parliament. In the past it has been observed that most of such “political Ad” campaigns have gone bad. In general Companies must try to avoid indulging in politics or advertising regarding the sensitive issues. If we see from Cadbury’s point of view they did not encode the message with the intention of attacking peoples’ sentiments, all they thought was that people would be less skeptical and they would “enjoy it as a joke” that just as Kashmir is too good to be divided or shared, its chocolates are also too good to be shared. The basic problem in such encoding was that Cadbury failed to understand:

• Sensitivity of the Issue considering Indo-Pak history.
• Indian audience’s lesser receptivity to open minded thinking as compared to the West where such an idea could have been accepted (still can’t guarantee).
• A cold war between the two nations was on the go after the recent attacks on the Indian parliament.
• Geographically speaking they targeted the wrong segment, If they had introduced Ads with such description to the Kashmir segment of their market in the subcontinent then the results would have been different.

Cadbury Chocolates

People on the other hand decoded the message according their views on the conflicting issue at hand. Moreover, I think the reason why people went so far and made it a much bigger issue that resulted in the national outcry was that Indian’s think of Cadbury as being a “British brand” since it’s a British multinational company and therefore people viewed it as after all , it was British colonial rulers who drew boundaries between India and Pakistan during 1947 Partition.

In short, the lesson that customers take home from such Ad campaigns depend entirely on customer’s frame of reference and I think this basic point must be kept in point by all the Marketers out there while indulging in such Marketing campaigns.

Well enough of my views :p ,What do you guys have to say regarding Companies Ad blunders such as this ?

“Ansoo” Lake Trek

The five of us , this summer, planned to go to the North. Since my early childhood I had always been fascinated to see beautiful Saif-ul-Malook Lake in Naran.It was going to be my first such trip to the North of Pakistan which also included high risk trekking to the “Ansoo Lake” as well. The said lake lies 7 km North of the Saif-ul-Malook lake. All four friends that accompanied me had prior trekking experience and were very well prepared for what was coming to us in coming few days. Other team members included Usman an HR expert , Ahmed and Nabeel were both Engineers whereas Hassan a businessman who owned a couple of Electronic franchises in Islamabad. I used to work at Islamabad Stock Exchange those days under Usman’s supervision and apart from the formal work we both shared the common interest of Adventure so we gave this trekking idea a GO!

First Destination :

We left for Naran from Islamabad early in the Morning and by the evening we were there at The Mother of All Lakes , The fabulous “Saif-ul-Malook” Lake. We camped at the Lake preparing for the bigger challenge coming at us tomorrow i.e. the day we trek to “Ansoo Lake”.

On our way to SaifulMalook Lake

Mountain we climbed

The Day of the Challenge :

Everyone woke up early in the morning to make Ascent towards Ansoo Lake. The start of trekking was amateur level and initial two miles went very cool. It was at base camp from where we started the dangerous trek. There we had to cross a speedy river stream, crossing it merely on feet was not the only problem , rather in doing so I damaged my Trekking shoes badly as they got soaked in water for quite a long time like 15 to 20 minutes and were damaged from one side , things started to look bad as I did not have any spare Shoes. But I continued trekking and then came the final glacier where things got worse, my team members had already left me far behind due to a misunderstanding and I was there standing all alone in the middle of glacier with no food supplies, no communication devices and with my damaged shoes .My feet got frozen due to direct exposure to snow. I looked around and found no one for help , it was this time that I decided not to quit and continue trekking to the top of mountain , I knew it was going to be very risky but at that point nothing mattered more than my childhood dream of conquering that mountain. And after an hour of trekking I was finally there and joined the search party who were looking for me. It was a very wonderful site to see “Ansoo” Lake in its full charm and it gave me comfort and it seemed as if it applauded my courage to not to quit and continue trekking alone all on my own.

Glacier where I trekked alone all on my own

Ansoo Lake

Facebook Link of the trip can be found here :

https://www.facebook.com/hafizhamza.khanwattoo/media_set?set=a.494466613976422.1073741825.100002392631683&type=3

We returned back to the base camp by the evening and the next morning as we left for our homes , we looked back at the mighty mountain and we could not believe that we had summit-ed it despite all the hardships. It was one joyous moment in our lives.

Actions under question, why? :

Following the end of trip whenever I meet those friends who accompanied me to the trip they argue with me over my decision not to quit and they say it is a complete nonsense to trek on glaciers all own your own when you are low on food supplies and when by no means you can communicate with anyone else. But I think If you are motivated enough to achieve something or to get somewhere in Life these things are though important but they lose their significance as at that point you are being motivated by your dreams and courage and you don’t care what others might think of you or what hardships you might have to face. I accept that I was ill-prepared for the trip but quitting the plan and that too when you are so close to your destiny is a bad idea isn’t it ?

Please share your views with me , you can be straightforward in criticizing or appreciating the actions that I took :p , I would encourage all kinds of responses here and don’t forget to share if you have ever been in such a situation and what would you have done if you faced the same situation as I did ?