
In 1977, when an alliance of anti-government parties kicked off a protest movement against alleged fraud in the elections, the then prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto made a television address in which he thumped the chair he was sitting on and declared, “Ye kursi bohat mazboot hai [This chair is very strong].” A few days later, a furniture brand known for its chairs, Chairman, released a press ad with the caption, “Humari kursi sab se mazboot hai [Our chair is the strongest].” That one press ad put the brand smack dab in the middle of a political discourse that was raging at the time. Some understood the ad as mocking Bhutto, while others believed it was supporting him. The brand was doing neither. It was simply trying to gain some relevance during a time when a majority of Pakistanis were split into two camps and politics was all they were talking about. Uncannily, Chairman did something that was ahead of its time. There is now enough evidence that in today’s polarised societies, consumer brands and their a...