An absurd attempt by P&G to make fun of Imran Khan & PTI By Khurram Zia Khan

Proctor & Gamble Pakistan in latest advertisement of its soap Safeguard made an absurd attempt to make fun of popular political party Pakistan Tehreek- E- Insaaf and its leader Imran Khan.

P&G in its latest brand tried to show Imran Khan as leader of germs and his compatriot and Prime Minister of Pakistan as commander safe guard.

Proctor & Gamble Pakistan in latest advertisement of its soap Safeguard made an absurd attempt to make fun of popular political party Pakistan Tehreek- E- Insaaf and its leader Imran Khan.

P&G in its latest brand tried to show Imran Khan as leader of germs and his compatriot and Prime Minister of Pakistan as commander safe guard.

If company wants to attract people by making an advertisement depicting country’s political scenario than I am quite sure that they have achieved their goal as within hours of its release, this advertisement become talk of the town.

Advertisement was discussed frequently on various social media platforms and twitter trend #BoycottSafeguard was a top trending trend in Pakistan.

The trend #BoycottSafeguard was run by supporters of PTI & Imran Khan were annoyed by company’s strategy to mock their leader. Although people running this trend were criticizing the company but their criticism was favoring the country as more and more people were viewing this advertisement and discussing about it. Criticism in my view increased the recall time of advertisement and also engraves the name of Safeguard firmly in minds of general public.

I think as a multinational company, P&G should restrain itself from indulging in practice of maligning Pakistan’s political leadership. A brand has many avenues to promote its products. They have a creative team and themes are discussed in detail before finalizing it. Watching at the recent advertisement, I think not a lot of thought was given to the fact that brand and organization may face public backlash on making fun of a political leader who is the head of country’s third largest political party.

May be someone sitting at a higher position may be an ardent supporter of PMLN who have used platform of a multinational company to vent out his anger and frustration on its political rivals.

In my views, there are many society related themes available for P&G to choose for its new advertisement campaign. Indulgence in politics will made Safeguard a controversial brand and these controversies will harm the image of bran in public eye. There is a difference between insult and sarcasm and this advertisement of Safeguard soap is not sarcasm but an attempt to insult a political party which gets votes of nearly 80 million people of Pakistan