That time of year when fasting and feasting go hand in hand. That time of year when the colours of consumerism driving Navratri and Pujo season are fully loaded from social media to shopping portals to supersonic delivery apps. Scroll down your smartphone or skim through your morning papers, the Navratri and Durga Pujo narratives come dressed as a consumerist sensory overload.
It’s an all-out consumerist war every Om, Geek and Hari is trying to cash in on. This Big Fat Indian Festive Blitzkrieg is a war of one-upmanship which may indeed make real wars –- Iran to Israel, Russia to Ukraine --- look pale. Advertising and marketing whiz kids are old hat, when it comes to selling Navratri in nine million shades.
Enter, the influencers. Influencers are the new marketing gurus driving the festival consumerist narrative. Marketing gurus who have a decided edge over other marketing whiz kids.
Thanks to a captive audience – mega million followers. Influencers come in all colours, contours and collaborations. It’s the Influencers who now decide how you dress for Pujo or how the Pujo comes dressed.
It’s the influencers who now determine the colours of your Navratra thali or the 90 shades of Navratri. Festival season is the Influencers’ Day Out. Influencers of Yore This tribe may have infiltrated your festival, with or without you knowing it.
Fashion influencers, food influencers, event influencers and so on. Well, a friend recently got a taste of this invisible infiltration b.