Coca Cola v/s Sharad Haksar

This is the photo that has the best digital photographer of India in trouble. Sharad has shown this photo on a hoarding on Cathedral Road to advertise his services. This has pissed off the Coca Cola officials and I’m not surprised why.

Coke has filed a defamation suit against him and are charging him Rs.20 lakhs if he does not remove the hoarding.

Ok, I have two opinions on this. First, Coke has every right to feel enraged. If I was the brand manager of Coke, I’d be pissed. It’s one thing to show your creativity but its another thing to stamp on another person’s foot.

Second, I admire Sharad because he is not buckling under pressure. He has hired lawyers to file a counter suit against Coke. Now, that’s what I call guts. It’ll be interesting to see how this develops.

Sharad’s bound to get some high profile publicity out of this. But me thinks, all this legal stuff will actually do harm by scaring away potential corporate clients.

I’m on Sharad’s side here, though. It’s always nice to see the small guy win.