Pepsi India - Social media insensitivity, culture ignorance or plain indifference?

This Diwali will not be a memorable one for the well known soft drink brand, Pepsi. 

And that's thanks to the insensitivity to the culture and people of this country - India, probably one of the largest markets for the brand. 

What's worse was the timing of this ill-conceived and ill-fated contest - Diwali eve. 

Driven by sheer over-enthusiasm or plain indifference, their social media team jumped onto the contest bandwagon last evening Indian time, asking participants to use the hash tag  #Ramayana140 and tweet in their version of the story - to use Pepsi India's words - Are you someone who can explain the Ramayana in 140 characters....

It was surprising, and to an extent downright stupid of people who were responsible for social media at Pepsi, or may be their digital platform agency to even attempt to hold a contest in the name of Lord Rama, who is a much worshiped God by millions of people in the country.

Withing hours if not minutes, a whole lot of people on twitter expressed disgust and outrage at the way a brand like Pepsi decided to even begin a contest like this.

More damage was done by some twitter handles which went about defending Pepsi India’s action, and asking why the brand must even apologize. It was amusing to see that the people behind these handles did not see the twitter-verse to be intelligent to see that they possibly were people who work with the digital agency behind this insensitive campaign.

The question for a brand like Pepsi is – how would you ever imagine that such a campaign will not hurt the sensibilities of a country in which characters of the epic Ramayana are worshiped day in and day out? And do such campaigns and contests have any prior vetting by the country’s senior leadership, or at least the social media custodians of the brand?

Pepsi India apologized later in the day for attempting such a contest. But the brand and its digital agency has more explaining to do.

By the way, this also is an eye-opener for social media custodians of many such brands - when you plan a contest,  beware of the people, their culture, beliefs and value-systems. Some basics that were thrown to the wind by Pepsi.