The war against addiction is being won, albeit slowly in today’s health-obsessed times. But the big bad world of advertising doesn’t give up. Under siege from temperance-loving, gasper-hating health moralists, they find new ways and icons to protect their millions and their client’s billions in sales. Signing up Hollywood idol and James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan to represent paan masala—an addictive considered injurious to health—Indian ad gurus and their clients are both shaking and stirring the chew-to-die experience. As Hugo Trax told James Bond in Moonraker, ‘Mr Bond, you persist in defying my efforts to provide an amusing death for you.’ Bond seems to be obliging paan-chewing Indians with one.
It is ironic that when the Make in India trend is catching up, a suave lady killer in a tuxedo with an impeccable upper middle class British accent has been chosen as the brand ambassador of paan masala. Our fascination with the Raj is well known, and a previous commercial which showed a wannabe-looking Indian tycoon with a femme fatale on his arm tossing gutka into his mouth after having bought the East Indian Company would have been laughable, except for the message behind it. Gandhi beat the British Empire with Satyagraha. Independent India is taking over the Raj with betel.
Mr Brosnan—sporting a greying beard and Rajput moustache, an invitingly raised eyebrow that made millions of female fans swoon, filling male moviegoers with envy—holding aloft a plastic packet of paan masala is about giving panache to paan. The flavoured mix of areca nut, tobacco, catechu, paraffin wax and slaked lime gets Hollywood varnish, but imagine James Bond spitting out a long plume of red on a urinal wall while seducing Pussy Galore, or M popping gutka into his betel-stained mouth while ordering 007 to eliminate Scaramanga! Is Brexit getting a brand new meaning, with Brosnan invading the Indian brand ambassador market?
Every product, however popular, has ambitions to become glamorous and capture new markets. As new generations with Harvard MBAs take over businesses, they want wider social acceptance for their products. Paan masala and gutka, banned in many states, are considered the addictive of the masses. The comical Agent Vinod look of Saif Ali Khan gorging on the stuff would appeal to small-town Romeos but invites a sneer from the baron who loves his cognac and Cohiba. City slickers recognise 007, while a baniya in Benares would think he is just a white man with a beard. Admen hope the upmarket Brosnan endorsement will help the paan masala consumer work the room at a party at the Taj, but is literally a licence to kill.
Addiction is also image-conscious. Cocaine is upper class, smack is for hobos. Audrey Hepburn with a long, slim cigarette holder epitomised cool for a bygone generation. A rangy cowboy stood for machismo and Marlboro. Now smokes represent death and disease. Revolting pictures on cigarette packets are being approved by more and more governments. Cancer warnings on paan masala packets, however, are still pretty discreet.
Paan masala makers are also following the money. Ad agencies hope an image makeover can take lime paste to the next level. And what better way than dressing it up in a tuxedo?
ravi shankar
ravi@newindianexpress.com