In the world of marketing, a new entrant’s toughest task is to break the perception built around the old guard. Established brands don’t crumble because of direct attacks. They erode when their aura is punctured, when their carefully constructed image is made to look smaller, or even laughable. Politics is not different.
Though for decades, MK Stalin was no more than a ‘possible’ political heir to former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M Karunanidhi, things changed in 2019. Stalin was turned into a brand, crafted meticulously as the only answer, as an able administrator, and a calm and composed CM post the 2021 elections. He was presented as the inevitable figure, the steady numero uno of contemporary Tamil Nadu Politics, a man positioned above ridicule. Even his critics rarely succeed in dismantling his image.
Actor turned politician Vijay was out to destroy that brand when he called him, “My dear Stalin uncle.” With such an open taunt at his second public rally, Vijay wasn’t merely addressing the Chief Minister; he was reframing him. What at first sounds like cinema dialogue is, in LinkedIn lingo, classic disruption. A single word that wedges into the aura of authority, triggering what one might call the ‘uncle-ification of a statesman’. Stalin was recast as just another politician, a figure who is now the subject of memes. This is not an insult for insult’s sake, but rather is a strategy through vocabulary.
Persona wars
Political authority in Tamil Nadu has always been theatrical. MGR’s heroism, Jayalalithaa’s imperiousness, Karunanidhi’s oratory skills, Stalin’s calm—these are curated performances. Brands with narratives.
“Uncle” in this context is not reverential. It’s casual, familiar, and even patronising. The strength of Stalin’s brand lies in the distance it creates, and Vijay’s jab collapses that distance instantly. It is lethal in politics. It forces a new narrative onto the mainstream discourse, away from discussions on policy and performance, and instead drags it into a battle of personalities.
The meme multiplier effect
Marketing teaches us that the most viral campaigns are not the longest ones, but the most repeatable ones. The same applies to political communication in the social media age.
‘Uncle’ is not just a word but a weapon in what Tamil politics increasingly resembles—nickname warfare. A meme-ready shorthand handed over to the trolls, clipped into reels, recycled into jokes, hash-tagged into tweets. DMK’s own and meticulously built digital army, usually skilled at dictating the narrative, is now forced to rebut it. And rebuttal, sadly, is half the battle lost.
As one would have expected, social media is abuzz with the keyword ‘Uncle’. Not one but a thousand iterations of the same comment are afloat across the state’s digital space – “What uncle, it is very wrong uncle.”
Binary breach
Every attempt at creating a ‘third and alternate force’ in Tamil Nadu—be it Kamal Haasan, Seeman, Vijayakanth, Vaiko, or GK Moopanar before them—has struggled because they failed to dent the DMK–AIADMK binary. Voters saw them as the ‘Third’ person outside of the duel, not mainstream players.
Vijay is trying a different path. Not with a policy vision, not with organisational might, nor with uniquely positioned ideological sermons, but with classic brand disruption. By making Stalin react, or at least by forcing his sympathisers to, Vijay dug a pit in the binary. He no longer wants to be the outsider. He wants to insert himself into it, and this is a powerful way to initiate the process.
No surprises, the DMK social media warriors are fuming. They are visibly stuck between wanting to give sharp rebuttals and not wanting to validate him as a challenger. Disappointed at their inability to channel the anger against Vijay, they have resorted to directing the hate onto their own allies and ‘neutral commentators’.
If Stalin ignores the taunt, it spreads unchecked. If he responds, he legitimises Vijay. Either way, the binary bends. While acknowledging Vijay can cause more damage to the Primary opposition than the DMK itself, it could have long-term consequences by disrupting the carefully guarded bubble of the DMK-AIADMK binary, which has been a mutually beneficial trait of the state’s political landscape for over half a decade now.
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Disruption as the Entry Ticket
Politics, like marketing, rewards disruption. New entrants don’t break monopolies by competing on day one with manifestos or organisational depth. They do it by causing damage, by reframing perception, by forcing established players to share attention.
That’s what happened at Vijay’s public address. One word did what years of lectures and manifestos from other ‘third’ forces could not. It forced brand Stalin into a defensive crouch.
You don’t have to defeat Stalin outright. You just must show that he can be mocked. That alone is a breach in the wall.
For Vijay, this was less of a manifesto and more of a first-day-second-show moment. While political observers and analysts alike would have expected more of policy positioning and organizational plans from Vijay, he decided otherwise. It might not be enough to impress hardline political critics, but his target audience embraced it.
He has segmented the Tamil Nadu voters into different audience segments and has catered to those who prefer ‘Mass’ to ‘Substance’. Credit where it is due, entry is not always about readiness but is equally or often, more about relevance. Charisma comes first, the rest later. Like cinema’s first day-second show audience, his base didn’t come for critique, they came for charisma—and the Hero delivered.
By turning Stalin into “uncle,” he has taken his first real step into the bloodstream of Tamil Nadu politics. He has shown that the duopoly is not untouchable. And in a state where perception precedes power, that is no small victory. By making Stalin share the discourse space with him, Vijay is no more a spectator. He is a competitor.
Gautham PS is the co-founder of Demos Project, and writes on politics, policy and society. He is currently attending ThePrint School of Journalism. He tweets @gauthambuddh.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)