Advertisment

Comedian Ravi Gupta 'exposes' boAt's Chinese manufacturers

Electronics brand boAt has often been accused of white labelling. The brand has taken a comical route to dispel the rumours once and for all.

author-image
afaqs! news bureau
New Update
boAt ad

In a strategic move timed with Republic Day 2024, audio and wearable technology brand boAt has launched a comprehensive marketing campaign designed to challenge pervasive white labelling accusations and highlight its domestic manufacturing capabilities.

Advertisment

The campaign, dubbed "Rock'in India", employs comedic storytelling through a video featuring stand-up comedian Ravi Gupta, who provides a satirical tour of boAt's manufacturing facility. The narrative ingeniously subverts white labelling claims by presenting the Indian production unit through a deliberately misleading lens that initially suggests a Chinese manufacturing environment.

Gupta's comedic performance involves pretending the facility is located in China, complete with exaggerated voiceovers and mock interactions with employees. However, the video simultaneously reveals distinctly Indian workplace settings, technological infrastructure, and workforce, effectively exposing the fallacy of import-based manufacturing allegations.

The campaign explicitly addresses long-standing consumer scepticism by presenting concrete data about boAt's domestic production:

  • Total production of 60 million audio and wearable products manufactured in India
  • Employment generation for over 15,000 Indian workers, both directly and indirectly
  • A strategic partnership with Dixon Technologies enabling domestic manufacturing of more than 75% of product lines

This isn't the first time an Indian consumer brand has faced such accusations. Recently, luggage manufacturer Mokobara, responded to white labelling accusations by introducing a provocative discount code 'WHITELABEL' after a consumer discovered a comparable product on a Chinese e-commerce platform.

boAt's campaign represents a broader narrative within India's consumer technology sector, where brands are increasingly transparent about manufacturing processes and challenging assumptions about product origins. The initiative aligns closely with the government's "Make in India" initiative, which encourages domestic manufacturing and reduces reliance on imported goods.

By leveraging humour, data, and visual storytelling, boAt is clearly attempting to reshape consumer perceptions about its brand identity and manufacturing philosophy. The video's creative approach also seems to have cleverly transformed a potential public relations challenge into an opportunity for brand storytelling, using comedy as a mechanism to communicate complex manufacturing narratives to a broad audience.

boAt Ravi Gupta
Advertisment