A vote for this idea

Addendum is a weekly column that takes a sometimes hard, sometimes casual, sometimes irreverent, yet never malicious look at some of the new or recent advertisements and comments on them. Write in with either advertisements you wish reviewed or with your comments at >addendum.brandline@gmail.com

We have a 100 million first-time voters. Many of them in urban areas have taken to the streets on emotive issues like the Nirbhaya rape case in Delhi, or after the 26-11 attack in Mumbai and have held very impressive candlelight vigils. They have been vocal on social media on every issue that concerns them. And yet, they do not come out and vote. This puzzling apathy is what many well-meaning people have been trying to overcome. The International Advertising Association (IAA) roped in Group M (if you thought it was only a media monolith, think again) through its experiential marketing agency Dialogue Factory and came up with a poster with a QR code. The poster had the profile of a young man and woman facing each other with the copy reading “Adult Content. For Mature Audiences Only. Click here if you are above 18” or words to that effect. The idea was that this kind of message would draw the attention of the youth who would use their ubiquitous smartphones, click on the QR code and would be privy to a video. The video too begins rather suggestively. It has a male hand and a female hand inching toward one another with the voice-over speaking about “it is my first time too”. By now any youngster – and a lot of older people – would be completely hooked. At this point the video goes on to say that you must vote, in a very ‘young’ tone. The IAA has had thousands of posters put up in some 40 colleges and has tied up with several service providers to push it across their networks. The critical point would be how many youngsters would scan the QR code with their smartphones and then download the video. When I wondered about this aloud, a young person told me “ask your son to answer that”, indicating that I was too old to do such things as scan a QR code. Well, the numbers will tell the whole story. And if they add up, Prash Gaikwad and Neeta D’Souza of Dialogue Factory can take a bow.

More on the vote

Addressing the same target group the Election Commission used the expert services of two of the biggest names in the business, Piyush Pandey and R. Balki, to help create two TVCs based on the winning case study entry from IIM Bangalore in a contest organised by Hindustan Unilever and a TV channel. One of them shows a US immigration officer quizzing a young man who is bound for an education at Boston University. When the officer remarks that he is leaving on polling day, the boy (he acts very well) nonchalantly says one vote won’t make a difference.

The officer then icily remarks that if he feels he will not make a difference to his own country it is unlikely he would make a difference in any other and gives him back his form, asking him to return after polling day. Very well done indeed! The audience, the message and the delivery of the message is all spot on. The other film is melodramatic and deals with the rather dark subjects of domestic violence, dowry, old-fashioned cultural ideas, and ends up with a convoluted way of declaring that everyone is seeking the opinion of the first-time voter. Somewhere, somebody clearly lost the plot. The film is very well made but the route to the final point is far too complicated.

On sticking to the chair

Riding the topicality bandwagon in style is Fevicol. The banter between a chaiwallah (do you think they are telling us something?) and a carpenter is revealing. The carpenter has made a lotus-shaped chair for Narendra Modi, an adjustable chair for the Congress (not too sure whether they will like that) and a mish-mash set of chairs for the Third Front.

The chaiwallah advises the carpenter to use Fevicol so that whoever wins, the chair will be strong and will last for a long time. Rather savvy advice, in any case. And then he cutely adds that the carpenter should price the chair at three times the value, because after all only one chair will sell! Now there’s an ad which ties in political messages into the core values of the brand rather well. You think Ogilvy has a special Fevicol team that has been ‘sticking” around for a long time?

Ramesh Narayan is a communications consultant. Send your comments to >cat.a.lyst@thehindu.co.in