Lessons from Lotus’ ‘Burn’ and Alia’s bold turn

The Lotus F1 team scored a winner at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Even while the car was on fire, someone took on the whole thing with a sense of humour, even if it was directed at the brand and involved a sponsor. In effect, hijacking eyeballs and buzz from what detractors were saying and could have said.

To many globally, this real time moment rightfully ranks a notch above what anyone has done with the Mercedes logo after the win, and above even the brilliant Oreo moment of Superbowl. And that is simply because this was a moment that showed the world that the brand was capable of laughing at itself – it was confident enough to. That it was able to get a sponsor brand some mileage in the bargain was the icing.

A lovely young actor Alia Bhatt, the daughter of Bollywood filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, became the butt of all jokes on social media soon after she appeared on a coffee show on a Hindi entertainment channel. The show ‘Koffee with Karan’ saw her being exposed for her lack of awareness on current affairs in an embarrassing fashion, to put it very mildly.

A group of comedians approached her with a script that would make anyone who was going through what she was going through cringe. But she sensed the opportunity to redeem herself. The online film was about how the not-so-intelligent Alia emerges as the ‘Genius of the Year’. No image-conscious heroine would have agreed to the script.

Alia emerged the social media genius of the year.