Journalism has stooped to rising levels of toxicity in the last few years, both in India and all over the world. Journalistic practices, especially broadcasts on national television have been marred with toxic, polarising news concocted to instigate communal feelings of disharmony in the country. This obnoxious use of television and other media to instill hatred in the society has made India’s leading advertising brands worried. They have hinted at reviewing their ad expenditures if the TV news channels do not rectify the situation. Brands like Parle, Amul, Maruti Suzuki, and Future Group have said that they plan to pull the plug on advertising and drastically cut down their ad revenue if such practices continue.
Krishnarao Buddha, Head of Marketing at Parle Products suggests, “As a viewer and advertiser, I really feel the news channels have stooped to a pathetic state and if the advertisers have the opportunity to break this vicious cycle, they must do it collectively and be a real purpose-driven brand. While doing this, we should state the reason that we are all doing it because of the content. I agree that such an environment is dangerous for any brand because it comes back to hounding it.”
“I’m recommending all the leading advertisers to come together and ban the news genre until they are forced to bring sanity and ethics in news back. I’m saying the entire news genre because somewhere they will have to bring in honesty in reporting and not create stories only keeping TRPs in mind, which ultimately is poisoning the same mind.”
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