Yes Madam did not respond to any media queries on the day, and then later clarified that no employees were fired and the post was just a publicity campaign to highlight the need to promote mental well-being among employees.
Digital marketing and PR experts believe Yes Madam’s reputation has been tainted by this campaign, and it will ultimately be detrimental to the company’s position as an employer and its relationship with customers.
At the end of the day though, Yes Madam gained notoriety (which is just another form of publicity), which raises the question: is there any line startups won’t cross to get under the spotlight?
Everyone is talking about Yes Madam. And perhaps that was the intention behind the bizarre PR campaign for the company’s corporate wellness program Happy 2 Heal.
On Monday, December 9, a social media post started doing the rounds supposedly talking about Yes Madam laying off employees after a ‘stress’ survey.
The email in the post said that after conducting an extensive survey to gauge the mental well-being of the workforce, the management had decided to lay off some employees to avoid “working under stress”.
Yes Madam did not respond to any media queries on the day, and then later clarified that no employees were fired and the post was just a publicity campaign to highlight the need to promote mental well-being among employees.
Even before the clarification came, there was speculation around this being a PR campaign and nothing else, but in the absence of any statement from Yes Madam till the next day, there was naturally a lot of outrage and furore over the post.
On social media, users pointed out that it was downright unethical of the startup to pretend that it was terminating people for being stressed, even as many others chose to believe that employees were actually laid off, and were rightfully peeved off.
Let’s get one thing straight: the problem highlighted by Yes Madam is real. Employee burnout and difficulty in coping with work stress are not fiction, but most critics agreed that using such a misleading post to highlight the issue is problematic.
At the end of the day though, Yes Madam gained notoriety (which is just another form of publicity), which raises the question: is there any line startups won’t cross to get under the spotlight?
When Marketing Goes Too Far
Naresh Gupta, founder and managing partner of creative Bang agency In The Middle, told Inc42 that the campaign was a bad move for Yes Madam, and paints startups and digital marketers alike in a bad light.
He believes Yes Madam’s reputation has been tainted by this campaign, and it will ultimately be detrimental to the company’s position as an employer and its relationship with customers.
“One can’t expect to gain anything meaningful from this kind of stunt. They got the limelight, but for the wrong reasons. You spend months, even years, to get your reputation right, and then you willingly destroy it. Where’s the sense in that? Communication is supposed to build a brand, not destroy it. When you destroy your reputation like this, it’s hard to rebuild,” he opined.
Naturally, Yes Madam has received a ton of flak already, but those on the company’s side would claim that the attention and engagement for the brand is invaluable.
For instance, the startup’s Linkedin post on its clarification on the so-called firing has got about 1,800 likes since this morning, while its other posts in the past month have only seen 120 likes on average.
It might have paid off for now, but is there a long-term risk to the brand?
Retail media platform CitrusAd’s India head Kushal Sanghvi, who also serves as a mentor to Niti Aayog, pointed out given the clutter of digital content, brands are increasingly relying more on the shock factor to grab eyeballs.
“With the sheer volume of content out there, it’s easy to miss the gems. For startups, any publicity is seen as good publicity. They don’t necessarily care if the work is average, they just want to be part of the conversation. Something ridiculous gets people talking, and that’s all they need for a moment,” Sanghvi added.
The strategy is called moment marketing and often relies on temporary spurt in searches. But poking fun at someone’s livelihood does have its risks. While Yes Madam might get some spotlight, the shelf life of the campaign is highly questionable.
“Many people in the ad world have talked about such stunts, and it’s clear—it works in the short term, but there’s no real reason to keep going down this path. Unfortunately, we don’t have elephant memories. In January, no one will remember the chaos created by this campaign,” he added.
Not Just Yes Madam
Yes Madam is just the most recent example of marketing gone wrong for Indian startups. Just a few days before the company’s stunt, Cars24 also released a bizarre campaign that at first glance seemed to be promoting the now-illegal dowry system practiced in India for centuries.
Cars24’s so-called “Dowry Collection” which was meant to be an anti-dowry campaign fell flat. Over the past few days, the startup’s founder Vikram Chopra has attempted to clear the air on why the company chose this route.
“Shocked? That’s exactly the reaction we expected. Every year, we get countless queries like, “What’s the best car to gift at a wedding?” This time around, we decided to address the uncomfortable truth behind those questions,” he posted on Linkedin.
At the moment though, Yes Madam may not actually suffer much more than reputational damage. However, those in the ad and marketing industry believe that startups need to check themselves before launching such outlandish campaigns.
As of now, ad regulator Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) is yet to issue any statement on the debacle. And it’s unlikely that any action will be taken since this is not an ad per se, but a campaign orchestrated by the company for publicity.
Bang In The Middle’s Gupta highlighted that Yes Madam clearly violated the advertising protocol which prevents companies from undertaking any misleading marketing campaigns. However, given the short shelf life of the post, it may be too late before any ASCI action comes, if at all.
Startups have resorted to panic-inducing push notifications, dark patterns and so much more to get users to come back to their app or platform. But Indian startups also often end up erasing the line between creativity and blatant misinformation.
Another example from recent months is Zomato’s CEO Deepinder Goyal’s. post for the chief of staff role at the food delivery giant. Goyal asked prospective employees to pay up to INR 20 Lakh up front to get the job, before retracting this ‘offer’.
“Brands really need to stop chasing virality through reckless stunts. People are not fooled anymore. In today’s world, with the cancel culture in full swing, there’s no room for this kind of irresponsible PR,” Sai Ganesh, former chief marketing officer for Reliance-backed Dunzo said.
There is another issue here. If Yes Madam had internal checks and balances and used diverse perspectives to come up with this PR and marketing campaign, it might have prevented this debacle.
But now, Yes Madam will perhaps be best known for this problematic post, and making light of stressed out employees. Certainly not for its services, nor its employee mental wellness program. Regardless of the intent.
,Edited by: Nikhil Subramaniam)