Working from Home/In Quarantine: Commodifying COVID-19 “lockdown”
period in India
Abstract
In this paper, we are examining the sponsored advertisement
posts/regular post on Facebook of a few business enterprises based in
India to promote their products during first two phases of COVID-19
lockdown period. As a marketing and product promotion strategy, many
business companies use social media platforms like Facebook and others
to advertise their product through quick sponsored posts from time to
time. As the use of social media has increased during the lockdown
period when people are spending their whole time at home for a more
extended period, these sponsored posts are more likely to be hit by the
viewers. The present paper studies the contents of select sponsored
posts/regular posts on Facebook to show how the “lockdown” period
created atmospherics for E-commerce businesses. It also argues that by
using topical words and phrases like “quarantine” and “work from
home” respectively, as a tempting marketing strategy, the capitalist
enterprises are using this time of distress, global misery and
tribulation, for promoting their business.