And ties go snap!

All you need to do right now is just tweet to Godrej to ask about the current nature of relationship with embattled Aamir Khan. A day after the actor started taking fire for his opinion on the country’s “tolerance” levels, brands associated with Khan seem to be distancing themselves from the actor. So yes, it will be a while before Aamir can say, ‘All is well’.

In an extremely vague response, Snapdeal — which has taken a thrashing on social media (with the #aapwapsi and the #saynotosnapdeal campaigns) — responded saying it was indeed a very ‘desi’ firm and made absolutely no mention of Aamir Khan.

“Snapdeal is a proud Indian company built by passionate young Indians focused on building an inclusive digital India. Every day,  we are positively impacting thousands of small businesses and millions of consumers in India. We will continue towards our mission of creating one million successful online entrepreneurs in India,” the company said.

In fact, the attacks on Snapdeal have become so intense, arch rival Flipkart jumped to their defence with the latter’s boss — Sachin Bansal — tweeting: This is flawed logic. Brands don’t buy into brand ambassadors’ personal opinions. Snapdeal shouldn’t face this.

Bansal’s support has gone in vain though. Several screenshots surfaced on the Web showing users uninstalling the Snapdeal app from their mobile devices.  Interestingly, Airtel remains untouched despite award-winning composer A.R. Rahman’s show of support towards Aamir. Godrej, meanwhile, is genuinely spooked. For the past 24 hours, the company has been tweeting the following clarification.

Aamir Khan’s contract with Godrej ended in March 2014. The said views are his personal & in no way connected to us. It read very similar to what Coca Cola had to say. “We have had no commercial association with Aamir Khan for several years and it is therefore out of bounds for us to comment on his remarks.” Brand specialists agree the fall-out from Aamir’s comments have been devastatingly quick.

“When an ambassador does something that doesn’t go with what the company stands for, they have to cut off ties. But before any of that even happened with Aamir, Snapdeal got caught in this storm,” explains Kartik Iyer, CEO of creative services firm, Happy. Which is also why many in the industry believe brand ambassadors need to be careful and discreet with comments made on controversial issues, on public platforms.

“You need to be aware of what you’re saying because it not only affects you, but it also has  major repercussions on your other projects — even companies and people you are associated with,” adds celebrity manager Amber Qureshi. Others maintain, it has been a form of modern-day blackmail from the anti-Aamir “mob” on social media.

“When they found that they did not like what Aamir said, their form of protest was to uninstall the app. So, will these same people get back to the app or just stay away from it forever? What if there is a huge sale? Will they still stay away from it? This seems more like a mob-mentality for now,” added Kartik.

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