Why in the News
- The social media advertising strategies of major global technology brands have recently undergone a significant transformation, marked by a shift towards adopting a ‘human’ personality and customized approaches across various international markets.
- This transformation, while aiming to boost user engagement and relatability, has simultaneously revealed substantial ethical pitfalls and the potential for public backfire, necessitating a holistic analysis of digital governance and corporate accountability.
Background and Context
- The Challenge for Global Tech Companies: Tech companies with operations across international markets face the unique challenge of marketing their digital products to people from a variety of cultures and economic backgrounds.
- The Indispensable Solution: A dedicated social media presence with a customized approach for each significant user base becomes indispensable to address this challenge.
- The Shift in Posting Style: As more brands join platforms like X, Facebook, and Instagram, they are moving away from posting “dry, administrative updates” about their products and services and are instead posting “like a human user” to become more engaging.
Key Strategic Transformations in Digital Advertising
The core of the change lies in Brand Anthropomorphism, alongside localized content and engagement farming:
1. Brand Anthropomorphism (Adopting a Human Personality)
This is defined as the act of giving human characteristics to a corporate brand. This personality allows brands to:
- Crave junk food.
- Gush over celebrities.
- Celebrate sports wins.
- Cheekily promote their products.
- Appear to express emotions.
- Make fun of their own customers.
- Nudge them into taking certain actions.
| Brand | Platform | Example/Action |
| Uber | Used ‘The Scream’ image and the slang term “ghost” to promote services and fees. | |
| Microsoft | X | Joked about noisy PC fans while ignoring complaints about its own products. |
| Google (Gemini) | Used the ‘birth-month’ trend (bespoke content) to promote its Veo AI video generator. |
2. Customized and Localized Content Strategy
- Playfulness and Slang: Many brands adopt what they imagine to be the language of viewers in their 20s and 30s, loaded with Gen Z slang and pop culture references.
- Market Segmentation: Companies maintain separate social media channels for different regions.
| Brand | Platform | Account/Focus | Content Example |
| Netflix | X | Mainstream Netflix account | Promoted the final season of Stranger Things. |
| Netflix | X | Netflix India account | Showcased Hindi language content, claiming to be “simping” for Emraan Hashmi. |
| Netflix | X | Netflix India South account | Referred to Silambarasan T.R. as its “boyfriend.” |
| Amazon | X and Instagram | Several India-centric channels | Promotes its offerings with a mix of corporate and human-like captions. |
3. Focus on Personal Connection and Engagement Farming
- Primary Goal: The single most important reason is for global brands to connect with their users in a personal way.
- Engagement Driving: Companies ask questions to drive up engagement.
| Brand | Platform | Engagement Tactic/Issue |
| Spotify | X | Announced lossless audio for Premium users and asked what the first song listened to was. Slammed by users because lossless audio had only come to select countries. |
| Google (Gemini) | Shared prompts users could borrow and replied to a user to reference a famous horror movie franchise. |
4. Blurring the Line between Advertising and Organic Content
- Goal: To ‘iron down’ the line separating organic content from advertisements.
- Platform Influence: Instagram now shows unsolicited sponsored posts, Stories, accounts, and suggested content, making it harder for users to quickly differentiate between posts from friends and posts from companies.
Ethical and Governance Challenges (Potential Risks and Backfires)
The unorthodox strategy carries significant risks, primarily linked to corporate accountability and digital ethics.
| Brand | Incident Summary | Policy/Ethical Implication |
| Amazon Prime Video India | Retweeted a user’s engagement ring photo on X with a mocking screengrab, inviting harassment and public criticism. | Demonstrated a lapse in digital probity; forced to express regret and remove the tweet. |
| Meta’s WhatsApp | Teased users with “we see you” regarding ‘lol’ usage in texts. | Triggered concerns over spying and privacy violations (recapitulating past issues); forced to repeatedly confirm end-to-end encryption. |
| OpenAI | Posted a light-hearted Story showing ChatGPT’s ‘saucy’ response while simultaneously facing a lawsuit alleging ChatGPT helped a minor explore suicide methods. | Illustrates using charming online reputation to widen the gap with serious offline lapses; a failure of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). |
| Spotify | Announced lossless audio to drive engagement but was slammed for limiting it to select countries. | Highlights the risk of alienating the global userbase through non-uniform product rollouts and mismanaged communication. |
Conservative Approaches (Lessen the Risk of Controversy)
Some global brands opt for a more restrained tone to align with their business operations:
- Apple: Largely maintains a restrained and mature tone across its social media channels, opting for short photo captions or text that focuses on the post’s formal context, rather than playing around.
- Palantir: Mostly posts about its employees and the company’s own accomplishments. Its official X account maintains a diplomatic tone aligned with its high-level operations (e.g., U.S. defense), and does not need to pander to everyday users or binge watchers.
Significance of Strategy
A well-implemented social media strategy matters significantly because it can:
- Consumer Connection: Helps a brand better connect with users and convert them into customers.
- Reputation Management: Aids in maintaining a positive relationship with the user base.
- Customer Service: Encourage users to reach out to official social media channels for instant help or answers, instead of calling a customer service line and expecting a human employee to resolve an issue.
- Advertising Efficacy: Make advertisements easier to inject into viewers’ online worlds and more natural for them to re-share.
Way Forward
The strategic shift towards brand anthropomorphism must be balanced with the need for cultural sensitivity and responsible corporate conduct to mitigate the severe risk of online backlash and erosion of customer trust.
Conclusion
The contemporary shift towards brand anthropomorphism is a powerful digital strategy that enhances user connection and engagement but carries inherent risks of controversy. Ultimately, the future success of global tech advertising relies on the meticulous alignment of this playful online visibility with serious offline accountability and ethical conduct.
UPSC MAINS PYQs
1. Introduce the concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI). How does AI help clinical diagnosis? Do you perceive any threat to privacy of the individual in the use of AI in healthcare? (2023)
2. Use of Internet and social media by non-state actors for subversive activities is a major concern. How have these been misused in the recent past? Suggest effective guidelines to curb the above threat. (2016)
AI and Social Media: Integrated Analysis with Way Forward
| Domain/Concept | Impact/Application (The ‘Boon’ – Positive) | Challenge (The ‘Bane’ – Negative) | Way Forward |
| Artificial Intelligence (AI) | Productivity & Efficiency: Automates complex tasks (fraud detection) and creates analytical models for data-driven policy (smart city governance). | Algorithmic Bias & Inequity: AI systems reflect and amplify human/data bias, leading to discriminatory outcomes. Accountability Gap in assigning liability for failures. | Graded Liability & Explainability: Implement rules for Graded Liability and mandate Explainable AI (XAI) to ensure fairness. Transparency Mandates for labelling all AI-generated content. |
| Creative and Generative Capabilities: Enables new media creation (text, image, video), boosting the digital economy and customized content (Veo AI video generation). | Deepfakes & Misuse: Generative AI facilitates the spread of hyper-realistic misinformation, threatening national security and electoral integrity. | Institutional Framework: Establish an AI Safety Institute (AISI) to monitor high-risk AI and ensure adherence to “Innovation with Guardrails” philosophy. | |
| Social Media (SM) | Good Governance & Transparency: Provides a real-time channel for citizen grievance redressal and government outreach (disasters). Democratisation for marginalized groups (#MeToo). | Misinformation & Polarization: Unchecked spread of fake news and rumour-mongering that destabilizes law & order. Echo Chambers fuel societal schisms. | Strengthen Governance & Moderation: Enhance Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC). Mandate platforms to employ proactive, AI-based moderation against prohibited speech. |
| Economic Opportunity: Offers cost-effective marketing (brand anthropomorphism for e-commerce) and direct engagement with a global consumer base. | Regulatory & Privacy Gaps: Demand for traceability conflicts with end-to-end encryption. Lack of accountability for data profiling and ethical lapses. | Ethical & Data Compliance: Ensure strict enforcement of the DPDP Act, 2023 to limit data profiling. Develop Ethical Codes for brands to link online persona with offline accountability (CSR). |
