Fortis Healthcare's Twitter Campaign #AgarMaKaDudhPiaHaiTo Goes Wrong

When I say,

“Agar apni maa ka doodh piya hai toh saamne aa”

What is the first thing that comes to your mind?

My guess is

• Amitabh Bachchan’s dialogue from the movie Lawaaris
• Someone challenging you for a fight

And here’s what did not come to your mind

• Mother
• Breast feeding week

The phrase “Mamma Mia” means my mother. Mamma Mia is also the twitter handle, an initiative by Fortis Healthcare. And their bio reads:

The brand is celebrating World Breast Feeding Week in the most outrageous fashion on twitter by asking users to use #AgarMaKaDudhPiaHaiTo

And the CONTEST starts! Use #AgarMaKaDudhPiaHaiTo as the hash tag and post creative one liners!! :D

— Mamma Mia (@mammamia_off) August 2, 2012

Breast feeding is the probably the most beautiful, natural way of expressing motherhood for a woman. It symbolizes a mother’s caring nature and marks a new journey in a woman’s life as a caretaker.

Fortis - Mamma Mia provides pregnant women with a platform to make their journey easier. The only problem though is that they may have started on the wrong foot on twitter.

Firstly, the phrase itself is widely used in violent, aggressive ways and resonates with bloody brawls. In no way does it connect with World Breast Feeding Week.

Add to it the fact that users will use the hashtag to connect with Rakhi Sawant, Sunny Leone and Manmohan Singh in the most distasteful manner. I fail to understand how these tweets connect with the brand’s objectives.

@mammamia_off #AgarMaKaDudhPiaHaiTo Sunny Leone ko rakhi baand kar..

— Deepak (@dksmailbox) August 2, 2012

@mammamia_off #AgarMaKaDudhPiaHaiTo Rakhi Sawant ko Sita ka role dila be!

— Bawa-re-Bawa (@Square__Boxes) August 2, 2012

@mammamia_off #AgarMaKaDudhPiaHaiTo Saala Manmohan ji ko bulwa ka dikhao.

— Bawa-re-Bawa (@Square__Boxes) August 2, 2012

Between these tweets you will see one of these,

Breast milk is safe and contains antibodies that protect infants from common childhood illness- such as Diarrhea & Pneumonia.

— Mamma Mia (@mammamia_off) August 2, 2012

Mixed Content? Or Messed Content?

I am trying hard not to judge….

Oh chuck it, it’s a #fail.

Neither the hashtag nor the “creative tweets” people are coming up with makes any sense. With this hashtag, the brand will only attract an audience that is not pregnant and never will be (Read: Men). If the offensive tweets continue, women would most certainly stay away from it. Now that is certainly not the audience that they are looking for.

Why complicate the situation for yourself when you can use a hashtag as simple as #ThankYouMotherFor?

Using #AgarMaKaDudhPiaHaiTo to promote the World Breast Feeding Week is like using #AankhiyonSeGoliMare to promote Eye donation!

I am ending this article with a fair chance for the brand to explain the actions.

@ormiga @mebrahmin totally respect your views ! The idea is to celebrate world breastfeeding week with some fun ! No offence meant.

— Mamma Mia (@mammamia_off) August 2, 2012

@tadbitlooney @ankitagaba its too early to judge the outcome !

— Mamma Mia (@mammamia_off) August 2, 2012

May be its too early to judge the outcome, but motherhood will be offended nonetheless.

Update as on 03rd August:

So the word is out that the Mamma Mia twitter account was taken hostage by a hacker. The handle has been restored to its owner and the brand has posted an update on the same.

Unfortunately our Twitter account was hacked into and the hackers have been tweeting from 1pm till we regained control of our account now !

— Mamma Mia (@mammamia_off) August 2, 2012

Having regained full control of our account, we are back to celebrating Breastfeeding Week the way we intended to do it.

— Mamma Mia (@mammamia_off) August 2, 2012