German Subba Rao: Ads that sell, but care

The following article was published in THE TIMES OF INDIA, Hyderabad edition on 21 Feb 2010 Sun

Save Tigers! Donate Blood! Save Petrol! As more and more corporates jump onto the social advertising bandwagon, Anuradha Varma does a reality check of how true are their intentions!

AS Stripey, the orphaned tiger cub runs for cover, lost in his misery, the viewer’s heart goes out to him. And as the crescendo builds, with cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni and footballer Baichung Bhutia endorsing the cause in the TV commercial, it’s only the hard-hearted that doesn’t want to save the tiger!

As over a lakh speak up on social networking sites, there is a movement that looks ready, with nowhere to go! Should the ads have focused more clearly on the message? Says adman Prahlad Kakkar, “The commercial tugs at one’s heart, but it’s directionless. Perhaps, the makers never expected an overwhelming response.”
Adds Aamir Jaleel, executive director, Lowe Lintas, part of the team that conceptualised Tata Tea’s effective Jaago Re campaign, “Yes, social service advertising has to give an answer, tell people exactly how they can contribute. It can’t just be about holding a candle to a cause,
which only helps get rid of guilt. The Aircel brand connect seems slapped on. It risks the viewer wondering if they just decided to invest their crores only for publicity. It’s a good cause, but it’s sudden and out of nowhere.”
Says Sivanand Mohanty, creative head, Dentsu Communications, behind the Save Our Tigers commercial, “We needed to approach wildlife conservation from a less expected angle than ‘poachers are killing tigers, let’s save them’. When watching The Lion King, why do our eyes well up when Mufasa dies? Because a father died trying to save his son. This led us to the creative idea, which seeks to make every Indian ‘feel’ for our national animal. A tiger is beautiful, majestic and dangerous, but a six-month-old cub is just another baby that needs his mother to survive.”
Tata Tea’s Jaago Re campaign, which talked about corruption (Ab Se Khilana Band, Pilana Shuru) and voting, which saw 28 lakh registrations on their website, and Idea, that spoke about causes like illiteracy and environment, according to Kakkar, changed the rules of the game. He says, “Suddenly, a social message was part of the main advertising campaign. Earlier, clients would give you Rs 2 lakh and the ad would run in the middle of the night.”
Interestingly, both brands didn’t start out wanting to do a public service campaign, but the social connect helped their brands stand out. Ashwin Jacob Varkey, creative director, Lowe Lintas, “For the Idea ad, where we say that a number can be one’s identity, we could have shown a CEO calling out a name at a meeting, and more than one hand going up, and pointing out how a mobile number is unique. Instead, we brought in a caste system, which had more impact as it stood for social change, and acted as a brand differentiator.” Jaleel echoes, “With coffee shops opening up, tea had become a middle-class, middle-aged drink. To make it as cool as coffee, we had to link it to coffee and the youth. The ad focused attention on the problems we were ignoring.”
The impact is higher
when a brand and social
advertising go seamlessly together. These ads, Jaleel maintains, are different from an Amitabh Bachchan or Shah Rukh Khan speaking up for polio. Some other commercials stand out in this space, like Incredible India’s Atithi Devo Bhava campaign featuring Aamir Khan, sending out a clear message on how to treat visitors to the country, the blood donation ad where a girl sprints to help an elderly man after having donated blood with the tagline proclaiming “Neki ke liye pehlwan nahin insan hona zaruri hai”. Environment is also a key theme, whether it’s the Save Our Tiger campaign or Nokia’s ad talking about recycling.
Say Priya Pardiwalla and Steven Mathias, senior creative directors, JWT,
who worked on the PCRA petrol conservation campaign, where the son tells his father not to keep the car running at a red light, “Children are a fantastic influence. The ad tells you how to save petrol and save money, which has an impact.”
However, is there more method required to
the creative bursts? Admits AA Rao, director, media, Ministry of Environment, “Environment is global concern. However, the efforts need to be more focused.”
As for saving the tiger, Gurdeep Singh, chief operating officer, Aircel India, maintains, “We’re in it for the long haul with World Wildlife Fund-India and NGOs. It’s a start. Consumers are looking beyond a transactional connect with a brand.”
The writing is clear — a social message needs to be followed up with a strong brand connect possibly partnering with NGOs and others to get the message across! anuradha .varma @timesgroup .com