Among the many questions asked to me during the Kargil conflict was that ``was it fair for companies to use the conflict as a theme in their advertising?.'' Or to put it more bluntly. There in the icy heights were soldiers losing their limbs and their lives. They were fighting in one of the world's most inhospitable terrains with their blood and guts streaming into the rockface. Was it fair for a soap, or a shampoo, or a car, or a tyre to somehow make use of this to sell more products, or even to add to the image of their brand?In their desperate search for events did advertisers go too far? It was okay for them to use the World Cup, the Wimbledon, even the Independence Day and the Republic Day. But here, had they strayed across the line of sanctity (just as Pakistan had strayed across the line of control)?I would like to begin by pointing out that many people were `using' the conflict in some way or the other. The magazines and newspapers were sensationalising it to sell more copies. The politicalparties used it to propagate their cause. Bal Thackeray used it to witch hunt. And so on. That's human nature.Now to come to the advertising world. Is everybody who used the Kargil conflict as a theme to be condemned? Tell me, if a rich man wants to be famous and he gives money to the poor so that he can be photographed on television, is he doing a bad thing. Or anything wrong? Not really. You can question his motives. But not his deed.So on the whole, any advertiser who did anything with theKargil conflict, didn't do something `wrong'. Now let's come to ethics. Here I think you have to judge on a case-to-case basis. Any company that thanked the soldiers, or wished them success, or collected funds for them, well their motives might be suspect but their advertising was by and large in good taste. However in the cases where a company seemed to say ``buy my product, and I will donate X per cent to the Jawans'' well that was perhaps crossing the line of control. Luckily there was only one or two ofthese cases.I guess one thing that we have to be thankful for is that the conflict didn't drag on long enough for this to be a serious issue. Testimony to this was the fact that there was a smattering of print campaigns that were war based, but nothing on television. And that's probably because television commercials normally take four weeks or more to plan out and put on air while print campaigns can be put on within days.But the point to underscore is that the economy seems to be moving at a sluggish pace. Either because of that or because of competition, advertisers seem to feel that people just aren't buying enough. And that's why to put them in the right mood, to loosen the purse strings, there is a desperate search for events to capitalise on. World Cup Offers. Monsoon Offers. Valentine Day. Anything that will help sell is fair game!Thankfully for the advertisers, we are now entering the time of the year when there will be a lot of events. Puja is coming. Diwali is coming. The elections willfeature as a theme. Christmas will come. And of course, there's The Big M - Millennium. As for the war. Let's just be happy its over!The author is National Creative Director, Joint Communications Asia Pacific. His email: kullar@del2.vsnl.net.in
