| Friday, 04 August 2023 |
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Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],
It’s Mathew again for Inciting Incident this week.
The Maharaja, Air India’s iconic brand mascot, may be nearing the end of its seven-decade reign, according to a report published by The Economic Times.
Aside from the Amul Girl, I doubt there’s been an Indian brand mascot as powerful and long-lived as the Maharaja. But, its prominence in Air India’s advertising has been dwindling of late, so if the Tata Group does do away with it altogether as part of its planned brand makeover, it won’t be the most surprising thing in the world.
But the news did give me an opportunity to dig into something that’s had me curious for a while now.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but Brand Mascots never made it past Y2K. Nobody bothered inviting them to the 21st century!
Okay, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch. But think about it. Almost all the popular mascots we know today are senior citizens of the mascot world. Where are all the young ‘uns? Or rather, why aren’t infant new-age mascots making it to their teens?
The majesty of a well-made mascot
Some people confuse brand mascots with brand logos, so let’s get that out of the way first. They’re both vehicles to communicate brand narratives, but they’re not the same. Here’s the simplest explanation I could find for why:
Conceived in 1946, the Maharaja was the brainchild of Air India’s Commercial Director Sorab Kaikushroo Kooka (aka Bobby Kooka) and the airline’s art director Jal Cowasji, and it was illustrated by Umesh Rao, an artist at the ad agency J Walter Thompson.
Interestingly, it was first designed for an inflight memo pad.
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