Key Points

On 7 June 2015, readers of Mumbai Mirror, a sister publication of The Times of India, were treated to a matrimonial advertisement that was spectacularly off script and unexpectedly on point – “WANTED: Groom who reads The Hindu. Because The Hindu reports the truth. The writing is crisp and brilliant. And they read their ads before they post them.”

Hilarious and devastating, the request was less an ad, more an attack – the sharpest one yet in a war between India’s two leading English dailies.

See Also: Can The ‘Internet’ Replace Television And Newspaper In India?

The Times of India vs The Hindu

The dispute stretches back to 2008, when the Times Group first launched its Chennai edition of The Times of India. Up till then, the written English news market in South India had been dominated by The Hindu – whose parent company, Kasturi and Sons, was based in Chennai – while TOI had its stronghold in Northern and Central India.

The Hindu maintained its lead even after TOI’s foray into the territory. But TOI, undeterred by its lukewarm entry, continued its expansion. In 2011, as the daily began publication in Kerala, it came up with a campaign to build its audience and knock its competitor, all in one move: ‘Wake Up to The Times of India’.

The campaign consisted of a series of ads run on local and national TV channels. The ads began with a series of slow shots of mundane events, like traffic jams and people waiting in lines, with a lullaby playing in the background. The scene cuts to a man sleeping in different positions while holding a newspaper. Abruptly, the score picks up pace and the tagline flashes across the screen: “Stuck with the news that puts you to sleep? Wake up to The Times of India.”

This transparent allusion marked the start of a long-drawn tussle between the two dailies. It took The Hindu three months to come out with its rebuttal, where it replied to the campaign with one of its own: ‘Stay Ahead of the Times’.

Ads ran both in print and on TV, highlighting TOI’s “sensational” editorial focus. Copies of the Hindu featured taglines like “Current affairs that go beyond Bollywood affairs” and “Government malfunctions matter more than wardrobe malfunctions.” Meanwhile, TV channels featured ads where people fail to answer basic current affairs questions, and when asked what paper they read, clearly mouth the words ‘Times of India’, before the campaign tagline flashes across the screen.

Both publications continued to engage in jibes till long after, with the last reported strike coming from The Hindu in 2015 in the form of a matrimonial under the 'Cosmopolitan' section on page 39.

See Also: Over 60% Indians Accessing Newspapers, TV News Channels on Smartphones

How The Hindu Matrimonial Went Viral

Against this backdrop, the Mumbai Mirror ad felt like an unofficial but perfectly timed addition to the feud. The final line (“And they read their ads before they post them”) cleverly rejected jibes of being dull, while restating the shallowness of its victim publication – a witty end to a dragged out ‘ad war’ where the publication platform itself into the punchline.

But there was one doubt: was The Hindu really behind the ad? Was this some sort of guerilla marketing? Reports from the time, in particular one by IBN Live, attributed the move to ‘a fan’ of the publication rather than the marketing team itself. CEO of The Hindu, Rajiv Lochan, seemed to agree, as he told BuzzFeed India that he “can’t imagine” someone from his team was behind the ad.

Social media, of course, was abuzz with the development, steeped in that classic 2015 humour: Twitter and Facebook users laughed about how The Hindu had epically trolled TOI, how TOI had been burned, and how they couldn’t stop ROFLing.

The incident marked a rare moment when the famously sober world of print journalism embraced self-inflicted comedy. And how matrimonial pages – usually reserved for solemn declarations of height, complexion, salary and caste – became the most entertaining section of the paper.

[DS]

Suggested Reading: