When Vijay Mallya, the flamboyant chairman of United Breweries Group, bought one of the eight Indian Premier League (IPL) teams, everyone expected him to do something that would set his side apart. So, no eyebrows were raised when he announced he would bring Washington Redskins cheerleaders to support his team, the Bangalore Royal Challengers.
Perceptible change: Season 1 saw the birth of local team loyalties, something the Ranji Trophy or Duleep Trophy haven’t been able to do. Photograph: PTI
The short-skirted, bikini-top Washington Redskins with their go-go boots were expected to jell with the image IPL was seeking to build, pitching itself to today’s Orkuting Gen Y as a shorter, faster cricket event that was as much about fun as the sport itself.
Unlike most Indian adaptations of western concepts, this one didn’t seem incongruous. And seeing the crowds cheer these women, it seemed it might work. Some people did raise objections about the skimpy outfits, and cheerleaders’ relevance to the game, but the organizers shrugged aside the complaints. Their argument was: Fans are loving the cheerleaders. “Can’t you see this on the ground? All eyes are set on them,” said a senior manager of Royal Challengers.
But perceptions are often deceptive, or so would it seem if one looks at the findings of a study conducted by MindShare Insights, the research arm of leading media buying agency MindShare, on consumer learnings from IPL.
Photograph: Rajnish Katyal / HT
The study, which analysed responses from 3,602 viewers in the age group of 15-45 across 11 cities, found that the cheerleaders failed to cheer Indian viewers. The study, conducted between 20 June and 2 July, found that only 2% of those surveyed liked the cheerleaders, while an overwhelming 25% dismissed the concept of cheerleading by skimpily-clad women. “We were equally surprised to find that cheerleaders didn’t work for Indian consumers,” says Sanchayeeta Verma, national director, insights and communication planning, MindShare.
“I think it offended Indian sensibilities because people are not used to the whole concept of cheerleading,” she says. “If a Rakhi Sawant (Bollywood starlet) or Bollywood dancers or even the same cheerleaders had staged a single performance in the form of entertainment, instead of being a part of the game, it would probably have been less controversial.”