How did this 74 year old caught the imagination of Indian youth and made them rally around a 60-year-old bill and a 5000-year-old issue?
Why did loads of tweet-support flood every nano-second of the agitation?
Why did the most powerful television channel go on a record 240 hours of non-stop coverage almost converting news as a reality channel?
Why did I change my Facebook profile picture?
Why did the opposition party go numb?
What made the seasoned politicians make such political blunders?
The answer is simple. “Anna found a purpose to his existence.”
It took years even for Mahatma Gandhi to find a purpose to his existence; lesser mortals like us may not even find one in our lifetime.
Anna discovery of his purpose and mission took the country by surprise, his timing was flawless, scams and toothless actions paved way for his massive and historic modern-day civilian movement in the world’s largest democracy.
People were angry to see the audacity of the corrupt politicians, businessmen, and religious leaders and shameless public display of money in building mansions. A trillion dollars locked in the locker rooms of Swiss banks and toilets of government quarters’, the economic progress stopped to start an economic exploitation.
Clearly someone crossed the line.
Anna’s purpose of “fighting against corruption” caught the imagination of a billion victims. And his stubborn Gandhian and his humble & honest ways attracted people like little iron fillings to a magnet. He was a mere catalyst to a huge chemical reaction destine to happen.
Now what can brands learn from this? Like great human beings find a purpose to their lives, even brands must find a human purpose to find a place in people’s lives as Anna’s life is governed by his purpose to serve the nation, even brands must be governed by its purpose. And finally must walk the talk.
As Mahatma Gandhi says “An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”
Kvpops's Blog 
very thought provoking. Purpose to life need to be identified.well articulated.
Well, since we are talking brands, Anna was different, different than any other social figure that we’ve seen. Are most of the brands different? I don’t think so. Product differentiation era ended long time back.
Anna’s message was relevant and again it was something unique and it had substance. Is messaging of different brands like that? No! It is based on shallow attitude and assumptions that people want what organizations have to offer.
When it comes to iconic brands and their communication, whether it’s Anna or classic Volkswagon Beetle ads, truth is what matters the most or what attracts people the most is the TRUTH. Base advertising or communication on truth and use creativity to make it exciting, rather than just creating fake, shallow aspirational value/attitude.
We should remember that people can see thru us. And they know a good product when they see one, like Anna.