A burning chappal, flying fists and blood on the street. These are grim opening shots of a caste riot in a Rajasthan village. Cut to a panchayat meeting where the sarpanch (Abhishek Bachchan) nonchalantly hears out the problem. His phone rings just in time and that is when an ‘Idea’ strikes him. “From now on, everyone will be known only by his phone number.” Tensions dissolve and everyone is happy. If only real life was this easy. This advertisement for a cellphone service provider rode on a social message—the futility of caste wars—to sell its product.Societal issues plaguing our dharti—caste wars, border divides etc—are turning out to be a perfect way to draw attention to products and services. So advertisers are now drawing on social/political reality as a backdrop for effective communication.Nikhil Rao, group creative director, Lowe, the ad agency that handled the Idea campaign, says the ad was about “simple solutions” for problems like caste and creed. “What the ad has done is look at a plausible answer. A simple solution, something that people will look at and say, ‘What an idea!’Another ad that kicks off on an issue is Airtel’s clip featuring two kids playing football at the Morocco-Western Sahara border. The tagline ‘Barriers break when people talk’ has been effectively shown with a football flying across a barbed wire fence and the kid on the other side kicking it back to his pal on the other side of the border. In a raucous environment of over-commercialised messages, the Airtel campaign is a refreshing break. A simple thought—how communication has the power to dissolve all boundaries—has been communicated powerfully. The campaign uses kids as symbols of minds free of prejudice, with their innocence depicted in stark contrast to their desolate landscape. The ad was conceptualised by Rediffusion DYR and directed by Prakash Varma. Then, there’s Lowe’s Tata ad that shows a young man questioning a political candidate’s qualifications to govern the country.So is it fair to ask why are ads getting into a ‘reality check’ mode? “Making a social statement was not the focus of the Idea ad,” says Rao. “We just decided to make a great ad. We did not want to take a ‘holier than thou’ stand and we don’t want to preach either. Idea is not an issues brand, it is into telecommunication and that is what we kept in mind first.”So does the social backdrop help brands to leave a lasting impression? Santosh Desai, MD and CEO, Future Brands, doesn’t think so. “A one-off ad doesn’t make much impact. Maybe as a larger programme, the use of a social backdrop could make sense,” he says.Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar, chief creative officer, Rediffusion DYR, says, “The idea of the Airtel ad is basic: whether it is two countries or two friends, the relationship is the same. And if you have a friend whom you haven’t spoken to in, say, five years or more, one dialogue between the two can change things. This is the idea behind the ad, where one spoken word changes things. It could have been any country, any border, it is not country specific. If it the use of an Indo-Pak border would it have made more impact? Well one cannot say that, since it works in any context. It is about how we maintain our friendships, it is about people, it could have been anywhere in the world.”“The choice of Morocco border for the ad was deliberate,” says Abhinav Pratiman, Creative Director at Rediffusion DYR, who scripted the ad. He says, “The insight is universal, so why have a topical setting like the India-Pakistan border? And though the degree of tension varies, the setting itself is inconsequential. Morocco was also the director’s decision to get the ruggedness of the landscape as a backdrop; we didn’t want a conventional setting. It had to look like an international film made by, say, Majid Majidi or M. Makhmalbaf”Was there a danger that the audience would miss the symbolism? Santosh Desai, MD and CEO, Future Brands says, “The Airtel ad uses a safe abstraction. There is a symbolic interpretation. In the Idea ad or the Tata tea ad, the issues are what we see when we look out of our window and the advertisers are using that, which doesn’t make it alien to the consumers.”No matter how issue driven an idea is, in the end the client has to be pleased. “The Idea ad is a light, young and youthful way of looking at things. The client was very supportive. Nowadays people can get livid about everything. The ad was not meant to be demeaning in anyway. We don’t want to make anyone look stupid. Also, looking at it in a lighter vein, everyone knows it is not a sure shot solution. It is a ‘plausible’ solution. Besides, we did not want to make fun of anyone and ensured that we don’t go overboard.”Brands are targeting an extremely aware market, where consumers are engaged in what is happening around them. Since we are already head long into the poll year, will these advertisements be used to rake in votes? Mahabaleshwarkar explains why it is not an easy plan. “It is tough to make an ad to make people go out and vote. Most importantly, you have to believe in what you are doing. For example, most people who make anti-smoking ads are people who smoke everyday. It all depends on how much you believe in the issue.”
