Influencers Influencing right!
‘Health with Humor’ is Revant Himatsingka aka Food Pharmer’s style to make people aware of how the so-called brands claim their not-so healthy ‘junk products' are healthy and fool people. No he just doesn’t make vague claims for views but is a certified Health Coach.
Revant was an ordinary man doing his 9-5 job, but now he is one the most famous ‘positive’ influencers on Social Media, with around whopping 2M followers. How did all this happen? It was his ‘Bournvita Health drink’ exposé video that made him the Hero overnight, though he has been send a few legal notices but this didn’t stopped him to take up challenges against big firms, obvious with ‘Himat’ in his name and expose them for lying to their customers who thought ‘Healthy bikta h’ (Healthy Sells), so tag products healthy to boost the sales.
Meet Revant Himatsingka, AKA Food Pharmer
Revant Himatsingka, hailing from an upper-middle-class background in Kolkata, is an Influencer and content creator with a huge following on social media. He is a certified Health coach accredited by the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in 2015. What is his content? From Packaged food reviews, urging people to always have a look at the food labels to check the real ingredients and don’t go by the names of the products, exposing false marketing of big food brands with Positive aggression and few other social change videos.
At the age of 22, he wrote his first book, "Selfienomics," his journey took an interesting turn. This humorous take on self-help covers a wide range of topics, including money and health, while maintaining a lighthearted tone. He has even spoken about his cause and motive to spread awareness in engagements at educational institutions and TEDx stages.
As per his LinkedIn profile, Revant Himatsingka has experience in management consulting at McKinsey & Co. and holds an MBA from the Wharton School, US. He has a finance degree from NYU Stern School of Business.
So basically, he is an all-rounder.
The Big Exposé of Bournvita
‘Tayaari diabetes ki' fits right for the Bournvita Tagline than ‘Tayaari Jeet ki’, said Revant in his video.
Let's talk about his very first viral video, which turned him into a national hero and a brand's worst nightmare. He uploaded a video on April 1st of last year discussing the sugar content of Bournvita, supposedly a health drink parents give their children on daily-basis. We are very sure, everyone in his or her childhood may have consumed it with milk or raw. Revant rightfully claimed the potential effects it may have on young consumers, because of the level of sugar it had. He mentioned how Bournvita is preparing kids for diabetes and has certain ingredients that could cause cancer. It was a revolution, People loved that video and claimed it to be an eyeopener and garnered over 12M views.
Amidst the criticism that surfaced around Cadbury Bournvita, the company decided to send a legal notice to the influencer for defaming their brand. The Mondelez called Revant's remarks as "unscientific" and said that he is trying to "distort facts and make false and negative implications". After receiving the notice, Revant had to remove the video. He posted an apology on his page, , he then said, "I apologize to Cadbury (owned by Mondelez) for making the video. I did not plan or intend to infringe any trademark or defame any company nor do I have the interest or resources to participate in any court cases and I request MNCs to not take this forward legally."
But the virality today is not a joke, in a matter of few hours, the video was making the rounds on WhatsApp groups, and every major TV news channel was talking about Revant. For three days, his video was the most popular trending post on X (Twitter), where trends die in an hour. To his surprise, the surge in his followers was huge. And, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, then asked the brand to withdraw all misleading packaging, advertising, and labels.
Government in Action
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry instructed e-commerce sites to take drinks like Bournvita out of the "health drink" section because they're concerned about young people's health. They took action based on findings from the NCPCR that say there aren't clear rules about what defined as a "health drink." Before this, the NCPCR had pushed for these drinks to be removed from the health drink category. NCPCR Chief Priyank Kanoongo wrote to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry about this issue, aiming to safeguard children from unhealthy food choices.
The order dated 10 April 2024, said "National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), a statutory body constituted under section (3) of the Commission of Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act 2005 after its inquiry under Section 14 of CRPC Act 2005 concluded that there is no 'health drink' defined under FSS Act 2006, rules and regulations submitted by FSSAI and Mondelez India Food Pvt Ltd," the Commerce and Industry Ministry said in an advisory to all e-commerce companies.
The FSSAI recently told e-commerce sites not to label dairy or malt-based drinks as 'health drinks.'
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