The Silicon Review ^Asia

Rahul Bose, a Bollywood actor, stayed at Hotel JW Marriott in Chandigarh, last week. Reportedly, he was charged Rs 422.50 for two bananas. Subsequently, the concerned authorities grilled Marriott for issuing such a fat bill as fresh fruits are tax-free under the GST regime: This all happened in good faith minus the fat bill.

Post this incident, a host of brands are having a good laugh rolling out cheeky ads. Reliance Retail, Nature’s Basket, Amazon Prime, PepsiCo, Pizza Hut and hospitality firm Oyo among others have come up with spoof ads based on the episode soon after Mr. Bose’s tweet about it went viral.

Amazon Prime tweeted a comparative ad titled “What you get for Rs 422”. On the one side it showed two ripe bananas and on the other side it listed a host of services it offers including three months of subscription of the video streaming platform, free delivery of products purchased from Amazon.in, music streaming and e-book among other services, and the customer will be still left with Rs 55, The Economic Times reported.

“There is no reason to say Na-Na to our bananas,” said an ad by Godrej’s retail chain Nature’s Basket that came with its own #RahulBoseMoment. It showed the price for a pair of bananas at Rs 14 after putting a cross on Rs 422.50.

“Trending moments like these in social media provide a great opportunity for brands to connect with the audience in a more relatable way,” said Jayant Chauhan, chief product officer atPolicybazaar.com. “The #rahulbosemoment is a classic example, where it helped us to create awareness around insurance with a sprinkle of entertainment on the side,” he said.

“In today’s rapidly changing digital landscape, it is imperative for brands to communicate with consumers through different moments. In fact, consumers today appreciate when brands share topical content – that’s why we have an ‘Always On’ social media strategy for Tropicana,” said PepsiCo marketing director Vineet Sharma.

“Don’t go bananas for Rs 442,”a Tropicana spoof said. It implies that for Rs 442, you can get 33 apples or three packs of Tropicana 100% juice. Or 51 oranges which amounts to three Tropicana 100 percent juice packs.

“Don’t slip,” said an Oyo Rooms ad showing a banana peel. “For (Rs) 422 you can get a whole room.”

“Creating relevant topical content that resonates with consumers is key to our digital strategy, and is in line with our marketing objective. Something caught our attention and that of many netizens recently, and we came up with a quirky way to tell our story through this opportunity,” said Prashant Gaur, chief brand & customer officer, Pizza Hut.