This week, the unsaid brief for brands was simple: if you claim to understand your target audience, stand with them when it matters. Unfortunately, most of them missed the mark.
No major corporate or consumer brands have officially voiced support for the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-led student protest against the alleged NEET paper leaks. The silence has been unsettling, particularly when it comes from brands that have spent years positioning themselves as culturally aware, socially plugged in and unafraid to participate in conversations beyond their products.
After all, brands today don’t hesitate to insert themselves into every trending moment. Whether it’s a FIFA victory, a viral meme, Women’s Day, Pride Month, or national interest topics like Operation Sindoor, marketing teams are quick to react in the name of relevance.
#Amul Topical: The India-Pakistan conflict pic.twitter.com/boEj0o5wnG
— Amul.coop (@Amul_Coop) May 8, 2025
That has also shaped public expectations. When brands choose to have a voice during celebratory moments or cultural conversations, people naturally begin to expect that voice to show up during moments of public anguish too. And if you don’t want to speak, at least do not appear oblivious.
Many brands continued with business as usual, posting promotional offers, product launches, memes and discounts as if nothing had changed in their day-to-day life. Social media users were quick to call out this “tone-deaf behaviour,” urging brands to do the most basic and thoughtful thing: “read the room.”
The criticism intensified after several popular brands like Tata Mutual Fund, Adani Cement, RuPay, YesMadam, Reliance Jio, Head & Shoulders, and ChatGPT flooded Instagram feeds with “Congratulations Spain” posts at a time when young students had resorted to indefinite hunger strikes at the Jantar Mantar sit-in.
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Against the backdrop of student protests being met with police action, not just in Delhi but also in other parts of India, including Mumbai and Patna, promotional campaigns, quirky memes and routine brand posts come across as disconnected from the reality their target groups are living. In such a situation, remaining silent is understandable. But pretending like nothing is happening is not. After all, there is a world beyond algorithms.
‘We know fascism’
A handful of brands, however, chose a different approach and have been applauded for it. Among them are Paradyes, Mamaearth and clothing brand Nilam India.
Paradyes, a hair-colour brand, announced that it was pausing its content for the next few days.
“Oppression has no place in democracy (maybe the system thinks it is when confronted?) The voices we raise today will change India for years to come. To everyone who showed up, spoke up, and continues to demand fairness, we stand with you,” a part of the statement reads.
Staying true to its quirky tone, the brand added: “We are baddies not because we slay, but because we have had freedom of expression, understanding the rights and the wrong. Taking a stand for what is right is more important. We know what fascism is.”
Mamaearth co-founder Ghazal Alagh also voiced support for the CJP protest, urging authorities to engage in dialogue instead of remaining silent.
In a video shared on Instagram, Alagh said she was disappointed that the concerns raised by protesters had not been acknowledged. “Aaj dil thoda sa bhaari hai. Aise lag raha hai kuch toh theek nahi hai (Today, my heart feels a little heavy. It feels like something isn’t right.),” she said.
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Without naming any individual or authority, Alagh stressed that listening to people’s concerns does not necessarily mean agreeing with them.
“Listening to someone or acknowledging what they have to say doesn’t mean you agree with them. You may have a different point of view or perspective, but at least hear the other person out. If someone wants to say something, please don’t ignore them,” she said in the video post.
Then there was Nilam India, a homegrown clothing brand, that not only chose to speak up but also called out other brands for carrying on with routine social media posting.
“Some things matter more than profit and brand image. We usually use this space to talk about our craft, artisans and handmade clothing. But today, we cannot. Many will say that brands should stay away from politics and governance because it’s safer to remain silent. We understand that perspective. But a brand is made by people. It exists because of people… We believe that speaking up isn’t political, it’s human. No ideology, no institution, no power is more valuable than a human life,” the post reads.
In another post, the brand urged homegrown Indian brands to speak up for the students, arguing that doing so would not ruin their Instagram aesthetic.
“If our platform can sell products, they can also stand up for our students and their future,” they wrote.
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Whether brands should take political positions will always remain up for debate. But when they have built identities around being culturally aware and socially relevant, audiences expect them to recognise moments of collective grief and unrest.
Next month, it will be interesting to see how brands plan their promotions for Independence Day, after having stayed silent on an issue which has made headlines for over a month.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)