Once upon a less-connected time, the actual Brand Experience led us to form an opinion about it. Today, our lives are increasingly becoming a battle of AAP BEETHI vs JAG BEETHI.
We ate samosa. Stayed at the hotel. Drove the car. Visited the bank. Fought with customer care. Then we decided whether the brand was good, bad or deserving of vocabulary unsuitable for a respectable column.
That was Aap Beethi. What happened to me, what I personally experienced. The brand experience.
Then came the internet. Reviews. Ratings. Influencers. Reels. WhatsApp University. And now AI, which can conveniently summarise what thousands of strangers think so that we don’t even have to suffer the inconvenience of reading their opinions.
Welcome to Jag Beethi. What someone else experienced.
The interesting question is: how much does my REAL BRAND EXPERIENCE matter anymore?
Suppose I visit a highly rated restaurant. Google says 4.7. Influencers photograph themselves looking spiritually liberated after tasting the butter chicken. Reviews call the ambience “divine”.
My waiter ignores me. The food arrives cold. The bill arrives surprisingly hot.
What is the truth?
My Aap Beethi says: terrible restaurant.
Jag Beethi says: exceptional restaurant.
Strangely, instead of questioning the restaurant, I may start questioning myself and my brand experience.
Maybe I ordered the wrong dish. Maybe it was unusually crowded. Maybe the chef had a bad day.
We have begun giving brands the benefit of Jag Beethi.
Earlier, advertising tried convincing us that a brand was wonderful. We knew it was advertising, so we maintained appropriate suspicion.
Today, hundreds of apparently ordinary people tell us the brand is wonderful. That is far more powerful because Jag Beethi arrives disguised as the democracy of selfless reviews.
But democracy can also be algorithmically curated.
The algorithm does not necessarily show us reality. It, after all, shows us what will keep us watching reality and reading posts.
And increasingly, it reaches us before reality happens, before our direct brand exerience can shape our perspective.
Before visiting a destination, I have seen fifty reels.
Before watching a movie, I know its rating and have read the reviews.
Before buying a phone, I have watched twelve unboxing videos.
Before eating the famous dosa, I already know how crispy it is supposed to be and how its ingredients have been sourced for the curated experience the chef decided to give.
So when Aap Beethi finally happens, it is no longer innocent. Jag Beethi is sitting beside me, whispering instructions. “Everyone loved it.”
Perhaps that is why we sometimes hesitate to dislike what everybody apparently likes. We are part of the protests when our core may be aligning differently.
But this phenomenon goes far beyond brands.
Consider the judiciary.
My personal experience with the judicial system may involve delay, complexity and frustration. Yet Jag Beethi tells me about landmark judgments, institutional wisdom and constitutional safeguards.
Which should define my perception?
Consider politicians.
I may find my local road broken, garbage uncollected and bureaucracy impossible. But my digital feed continuously shows development, inaugurations, statistics, speeches and enthusiastic crowds.
Aap Beethi meets Jag Beethi.
Election happens somewhere between them.
Families are no different.
Instagram presents happy couples, successful children, exotic holidays and anniversary declarations suggesting thirty years of uninterrupted marital enlightenment.
Meanwhile, inside another perfectly normal home, someone is asking: “Who finished the milk and didn’t tell anyone?”
Aap Beethi remains stubbornly unfiltered. Jag Beethi increasingly comes with background music.
The danger is not that we listen to other people’s experiences. Humanity has always done that. Reputation itself is ancient Jag Beethi. We asked neighbours about doctors, relatives about schools and friends about restaurants.
The difference is scale, speed and selection.
Earlier, Jag Beethi came from ten people we knew.
Today, it comes from ten thousand people selected by an algorithm we don’t know.
And repetition creates its own reality.
If I repeatedly see that a brand, politician, institution, family model or lifestyle is wonderful, my own contradictory experience begins looking like an exception.
That is where we may slowly lose our grip on reality and the real brand experience.
Not because reality has disappeared.
Because its parameters and axes are being continuously redrawn.
Perhaps the answer is not choosing Aap Beethi over Jag Beethi.
Both matter.
Jag Beethi gives perspective. Aap Beethi gives evidence.
Jag Beethi can tell me that my bad experience may be an exception. But it should never persuade me that my experience did not happen.
That distinction is critical. As today, brands fight a battle between Aap Beethi and Jag Beethi- where Jag Beethi seems to be defining the choice.
Because eventually a brand is not its advertising, reviews, ratings or influencer reels.
Judiciary is not merely its celebrated judgments.
A politician is not the applause in my feed.
And a family is certainly not its anniversary photographs.
Reality must retain one stubborn vote.
Mine.
Otherwise, someday the algorithm may tell me I am extremely happy.
And looking at all the likes, ratings and recommendations, I may have no option but to agree. Because today perception is adulterated with reality.
BLOG/053/2025/688/1216 To connect, send an email . Twitter S_kotnala
The image above is AI-generated using ChatGPT
The article first appeared in FREE PRESS JOURNAL on 7th August 2026.
You may want to read.
BRAND AND MANCHALA ASJHIQ.
Does Everything fragment the same way? Hearts, Brands, Spaghetti, glass and meteorites.
