'Darlings' Scene Showing Cosmetic Brand Clever or a Blunder? LinkedIn Debates

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posted on 2 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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LinkedIn user Sahil Batra shared a still from Darlings featuring Alia, where a bottle of cosmetic by the brand Kama Ayurveda can be seen sitting on a shelf in the background.

Darlings, starring Alia Bhatt, Shefali Shah and Vijay Varma in key roles, received positive responses from audiences and critics alike. It’s nuanced handling of the issue of domestic violence while also being wickedly and darkly comedic drew appreciation, in addition to the stellar performances by the leading and supporting cast. However, a LinkedIn user has pointed out what he perceives to be a “mistake" in brand placement in a scene of the film.

LinkedIn user Sahil Batra shared a still from Darlings featuring Alia, where a bottle of cosmetic by the brand Kama Ayurveda can be seen sitting on a shelf in the background. So, why should that be a mistake? “Kama must have thought: “Alia is a perfect personality to associate ourselves with and the audience of the show is our audience too! Looks like a perfect place to advertise ourselves." What they completely missed is that people were not watching Alia, but Badru, and they spotted a premium brand in a lower middle class household. Berserk!" Batra wrote in his LinkedIn post.

Batra further said that it was a typical case of branding gone wrong, because Kama Ayurveda products do not come cheap but now, what viewers think is that it is “a brand for people from lower middle class". Batra concluded: “Brand impressions don’t mean anything. Context of those impressions is what makes those impressions worth the penny!"

While there were takers for this point of view, many on LinkedIn disagreed. “So you are saying that the audience who watched darlings.. are all from Badru’s social strata.. and are also not emotionally mature to understand that this is just a movie – and sometimes – I would assume that the logic would be – saw a brand in a movie and then saw the same brand in a retail store. It may trigger a recall and impulse to explore or buy. Is that not how product placements work? This premise would fail – if it was the product being used – then the context would be important," one user commented, for instance.