Thums Up & the Evolution of Indian Masculinity

When we lost Vinod Khanna earlier this year we lost the ultimate symbol of masculinity as we knew it, a few decades ago. The blue print of masculinity in the 50s, 60s and 70s was quite different from how we understand it today.

Masculinity in those ages represented pure machoism. There was something very raw about it. Men were expected to be muscular, drink a few gallons of alcohol without getting intoxicate, and strong enough to be heavy smokers. Ian Fleming's James Bond in his books represented this kind of raw masculinity. Vinod Khanna brought that masculinity to Indian audiences both through his films and through the advertising campaigns that starred him as bringing macho and manly feelings to the brands he endorsed.

In the earlier model, men projected toughness and independence and they seemed invulnerable. Perhaps one of the first brands to portray this stereotype of masculinity was Malboro. Brands and marketers projected this masculinity by finding appropriate role models and celebrities. Vinod Khanna in India was one of them. I remember the first Cinthol soap film. Like other masculine models before him, like Charles Bronson in Hollywood, the audience would sigh when these guys took off their shirts to expose their bare chests.

Masculinity today

Masculinity over the last 50 years however has changed dramatically. Todays man is not only about a chiselled body.

Source : Qualitative research initiated by the author

He need not be body obsessed to be masculine. He can be lean and strong not necessarily muscular and building muscles. He is expected to be a smart thinker who is versatile. Suddenly the days of raw machismo seem to have been left behind.

The New Thums Up Masculinity Model

When Thums Up made the change from Salman Khan to Ranveer Singh, they made a conscious effort to evolve the 'masculinity' factor that Thums Up was endowed with already through its history. The launch of Ranveer Singh with the Main Hoon Toofani theme, had Ranveer in a feat where he helped school children out of a bus that was about to fall into a gorge. Earlier commercials had shown Salman go to any lengths to get his bottle of Thums Up and in the process overcome several hurdles. In comparison, the new Ranveer film had purpose.

But creating different products variants is often easier than creating differences in the advertising between variants. So the new Thums Up Charged ( a variant with extra carbonation and caffeine ) TVC depicting Ranveer Singh as a race car driver, which sticks quite close to the new knitting of the new Thums Up, may or may not distinguish itself adequately from the regular Thums Up variant. The new variant is being launched with the great expectation of making Thums Up a billion dollar brand. In the South of India, Mahesh Babu continues to carry this baton forward for Thums Up. And if the youtube views are anything to go by, the Mahesh Babu trailer has got 39 k views and 1k likes on youtube compared to 2.9k views and 39 likes for Ranveer, as of December 10, 2017.

Irrespective of how successful the new variant is, Thums Up which was acquired in 1993, continues to be the leading brand of cola in the market, leadership being something that has eluded the likes of global leaders like both Coke and Pepsi in India.

Connect with me on twitter