How effective are ads put out by state agencies? Some scope for improvement, guys!Do government known how to advertise? Or do they even know why they should advertise! Over the years one genre of advertising that continues to bug me is Government Advertising. Being unable to pinpoint exactly who the ads are intended to reach and inform and/or persuade puzzles me. This puzzlement arises as all the lessons I have learnt over the many years spent in advertising have all taught me that there must be a purpose to ads. Such a purpose can only exist in the context of, what we in advertising jargon, call target groups. Equally importantly, it is necessary to know what attitude and/or action the ads are intended to change, create or reinforce. Bearing these two factors in mind, let us consider some recent government ads. The first is the ad by India Post (for those still in the dark, this appears to be the new brand name for our new and improved friendly P&T Department!) that I came across in The Economic Times on December 13 and The Hindu on December 14, 2000. The ad was for `Greeting Post' (a sub-brand of India Post?) and the product on offer was a range of Pre-Paid Postage Greeting Cards, with the special USP of postage stamps on the envelopes being `exact replicas of the designs inside'. I have to wonder how many people, having extracted the card and thrown away the envelope, would realise the existence of this neat design synergy, that I presume cost India Post not just time but also money to print and assemble in matching pairs. My major grouse is that the timing of the ads appears somewhat unfortunate if not downright wasteful. I am surprised that the agency concerned, INTERPUB, did not counsel their client to put the ads on hold till after the postal strike. This pre-emptive action would have been entirely possible, certainly for ads appearing in daily newspapers, and would have been eminently wise. Wise not just because the sales pitch would most certainly have been frustrated by the non-availability of people to sell us the cards at the nearest friendly India Post Office but also because ads from the postal service at such a time would only add fuel to the fire of public discontent and dismay. In this case the money spent on government ads would be both wasted and counterproductive. Another example of counterproductive advertising are the preachy ads issued by Delhi Vidyut Board. An entirely mislabelled sub brand the 'Energy Conservation Programme' deigns to instruct us, the silly old public, on the steps we need to take to be better enlightened (pun intended) consumers. The headline and sub-head rub in the hurt: 'SWITCH OFF Energy wastage.because energy saved is energy produced.' It is not just ironic but insulting that the organisation that is directly responsible for wastage, misuse, etc., on a gigantic scale should have the nerve to lecture us with these old and tired platitudes. DVB should follow the maxim that `charity begins at home' and so does good responsible behaviour. Finally, there is the IA ad on coping with flight delays due to fog. This ad is a good one, giving specific phone numbers to call for different information needs. In addition, IA offers to alert passengers of delays, etc., provided they give them a contact phone number. A good offer that must be backed by performance. Our expectations are raised sky high - IA please do not ground us by failing to deliver!
