Suddenly friendship has swamped all aspects of our lives. At least the advertisements seem to suggest that this is the case. Ma is a friend, daddy is a pal, and granddad is one’s greatest buddy. So, why is there suddenly an exploration of the friendship space by brands, across a range of categories, in their campaigns?
It is understandable that Airtel is doing it because its basic premise is connectivity. Friendship connects. Har ek friend zaruri hota hai has a corollary in Internet hain to friendship hain, but friendship today has spread across and swamped many categories. In the wall paint commercial for instance, two friends plot a perfect setting for a marriage proposal. The Boxer ad has a hostel situation where friends share briefs; The Surf Excel boys romp around in muddy water hugging each other; the soft drink guys scale heights doing toofani things; cosmetic categories have friends sharing beauty and cosmetic tips and even the Krackjack biscuit revives memories of childhood friendships.
One obvious reason for this all-pervading friendship theme is probably the new and growing attachment to sites like Facebook. But Rashmi Bansal in her blog has raised a very valid question about these so-called friends galore. Can one person have 500 friends? Is it possible for someone to have 500 friends at all? Who are the people on your friendship list on your Facebook site, and why are they there? Do you really know them to include them in your ‘real’ friend’s list?
The world of friendship has many ranks. We have (zigri dost) the bosom friend, (langotia dost) childhood friend, (karibi dost) close friend, (khaas dost) special friend and, of course, best friend. The others are at best fair weather acquaintances and are looked upon with suspicion and sometimes made fun of. They acquire derogatory descriptors like (chamcha) sycophant and opportunist. In the long journey of life a true friend stands by us in good and bad times, in famines and in uprisings with equal attachment. In the family, an adult son is a friend and a wife is a friend first — priya sakhi. To be a friend one needs to qualify one’s friendship through the test of time and of course sacrifice. Thus in the saga of friendship there are some immortal stories that are told and heard over and over again.
Against this backdrop a new definition of friendship is being defined in commercials — there is almost a new democratisation of friendship. The unknown world which is being unfurled before us by the restless powers of technology is an unexplored and unchartered space. Like an investment plan in an unpredictable financial market one needs to have a large portfolio of friends to help you shoulder this uncertainty. You never know whose engagement and expertise will come in handy and at which crossroad of life.
One more area where friendship is flourishing is the bond of friendship with brands. Over the years the friendship space has got crowded with Bollywood heroes as brand ambassadors of friendship. Akshay Kumar talks about the colours of friendship in Bagpiper, and so does Saif Ali Khan in Royal Stag and Appy. Gautam Gambhir has actually been in a promo campaign for Coke where, with every purchase of a Coke bottle, friendship comes free. There is a strong marketing logic behind playing the friendship card in commercial communication. In a digital, tech-driven world everything is replicable and everything is original — making a mockery of asli and nakli. Friendship comes handy for brands to bring in a new paradigm of valuation. What is invaluable is what cannot be copied. Emotions cannot be copied neither can joy, love, feelings of togetherness because they all challenge the fundamentals of ownership. They mock all attachments of value with one’s self. If your money is my money, your pain is my pain I can jolly well laugh at your pain because I am laughing at myself.
Friendship opens up this new space of valuation where only fun, joy togetherness ‘common ownerships exist without the barriers of self’. This could be a reason why all brands are jumping onto this liberated value wagon of friendship. Is it good or bad, right or wrong are not the questions we must ask. The question is how long will this friendship card hold value for and across how many brands? Will it really open up new concepts in as far as relationships go or will it end up trivialising the very noble feeling of human interaction?

The writer is VP, consumer insight & human futures development, McCann Erickson India. Contact him at ishore.chakra borti@mccann.com