Dog goes woof, cat goes meow.
Bird goes tweet, and mouse goes squeak.
Cow goes moo. Frog goes croak, and the elephant goes toot.
Ducks say quack and fish go blub, and the seal goes OW OW OW.
But there's one sound that no one knows...
WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY?

That is a fairly popular song and the kids love it. Every time it is played the whole room is full of squealing children and giggling teenagers…perhaps even some shell shocked parents.

Today however when I heard that song, my mind travelled to another dimension and I decided that I had to address another common query. Not because I am qualified to do so but because I felt like it. And the question is simple…what does the brand say? Or perhaps more specifically, what does YOUR Brand say?

But before I launch into any kind of advertising spiel, let me tell you that I come from a generation that grew from non-brand to
only-brand and then went on to become
brand-immune. So there are a few stages of evolution that we witnessed and cannot ignore.

One of the most significant brand introductions was the ubiquitous blue denim jeans that are, or were almost generically known as Levi’s.

An original Levi’s was an exclusive possession. It said that you had people who went abroad and got you one. If you were more flamboyant it said you were a foreign traveller. And then the fakes began…and the local brands began…and Arvind Mills let out its secret of being a Levi’s fabric supplier. And suddenly denim was no longer premium. It became a fabric of the masses. And (God Forgive Me) it began to discover the femininity of embroidery. Strange cuts invaded the market and stars like NTR and Krishna made popular the green, the violet and even the orange jeans.

Now you have a Levi’s Store in almost every city and it sells the Red Tab jean to almost anyone.

I remember when we were in school and we used to be given a white T Shirt as part of our PT Dress. The coloured shorts and the white T Shirts with HPS printed on the front were signature uniforms and we used to wear the costume with pride. Till parents started taking the T Shirts that were too small for the kids and gave it to the rickshaw-walla, the dhobi or the peon’s child. Now suddenly the ‘riff-raff’ was sporting HPS Colours…and that was a No-No.

Someone ran a campaign to discourage students and their parents from donating branded school stuff to the undeserving or unqualified…but things came to a surprising stop only when the school discontinued the T Shirts.

…and then there were the cigarettes. My father who used to smoke John Players, Camels, Dunhill and the like switched to Panama when it became difficult to source the foreign cigarettes. And there followed a time when showing off a foreign brand was considered acceptable. Those were the halcyon Vat 69 days and the cigarettes fell into the duplicate traps ever so easily. Fakes came into the markets and so did the habit of carrying a foreign pack with Indian maal.

But what did you surmise from a man who carried two-two packets of State Express 555 cigarettes at the same time?

That he was rich? That he was a show off? That he was a bit of a boor? Did it say anything about his caste or creed?

I had a friend whose father was guilty of what I now know is a fashion crime, a social faux pas…he used to carry two packets almost all the time. And just in case you missed seeing his brash display of wealth and affluence, he used to leave two packets behind his car seat on the window space.

555 was supposed to be a premium brand…no, a super premium brand. So much so that everyone from tailors to car mechanics began to use the name to denote quality. I even had a friend who called his fashion store in Vizag State Express. And I landed up making a film for them.

So when I heard about a new Haleem in town I thought 555 Haleem would be something special. It was special alright, and disastrously so. But that is another story.

All I am saying is…that each brand conveys so much about itself and even more about you. And we need to be careful about which brand we allow ourselves to be associated with.

So which brand do you think you personify in your friends’ minds?