Disobeying conventional wisdom to carve out your own space

Conventional wisdom is common truth, it feels right and most of the people live their life abiding by these common truths. But what happens when a bunch of people decide to challenge conventional wisdom and put their work out as brand ads. Here are examples of a few brands which disobeyed conventional wisdom and went on to create their own mark.

Surf Excel – Stains were bad for clothes, period. Surf Excel disobeyed this conventional wisdom and came up with the campaign, ‘Stains are good or Daag acche hain’. They gave a reason for stains to be considered good.

Avis – Every brand wants to position itself as No.1 in their category. Avis, a car rental company, disobeyed this conventional truth and came out with a campaign which said, ‘We are No.2, we try harder’. They gave a reason why being No.2 means better customer service.

Gillette – Shaving has always been about men and no wonder most of the conventional barbers are male. Gillette broke this conventional wisdom so beautifully in their ad, The Barbershop Girls of India, showing two women from rural India taking over their father’s Barbershop business.

Ariel – It is so typical for us to stereotype roles e.g. we all have a perception of the roles men and women fulfil in our society. But these perceptions built over generations may not be true. Ariel challenged this conventional truth with their campaign, Share The Load, which went on to become part of every household conversation.

Am adding one more example to this list. Media companies are run by viewership or listenership in case of radio companies. Common sense says, media companies will ask every living soul to consume their medium until Radio Mirchi decided to say, Turn Off The Radio. People thought this must be a blunder, but it turned out to be a milestone campaign for IPL (Indian Premier League), where Mirchi RJs asked listeners to turn off the radio and watch IPL on TV.