Nothing Official About It

This is more than an ad. It was about creating and managing a brand. We could not have done plain advertising. So,we didnt go the government way, says Venu V,tourism secretary of Kerala. Neither was the budget sarkari,at Rs 1.75 crore.

Nor was the crew. Walking through villages,asleep on a forest pasture and,in the final shot,resting against the majestic elephant Aiyappan is Swedish model Miriam Orah. The music was by 1 Giant Leap,a band from the UK. The ad also targeted iPad users in international markets with an in-application advertising campaign. We projected Kerala as an aspirational destination,instead of aiming for the lowest common denominator. Our competition is not just other Indian states,but other countries, says Venu.

The film was anchored by Stark Communications,a Thiruvananthapuram-based ad agency that has been handling the Kerala Tourism account for 14 years,and produced by Prakash Varmas Nirvana Films. Varma says it was an insiders view that helped him nail the details. I am a hardcore Malayalee,having lived in Alleppey for 23 years. We were not there to shoot the coconut trees. We wanted to get the rawness, he says.

Is something happening to sarkari ads? Kerala Tourism,unlike most government departments,knows the business of branding. But even by its standards,the understated luxury and the skirting of the literal in the Kerala publicity film was unusual. The new Indian Railways ad,which shows a human train winding through the streets and buildings of Kolkata,as Rail gaadi chhuk chhuk chhuk chhuk from the 1968 Ashok Kumar film Aashirwaad plays in the background,has had an instant connect. And when an awareness campaign on currency notes and what could be more sarkari than that? turns into a crackling piece of poetry,you have to wonder.

The RBIs new Paisa Bolta Hai ad has copy as crisp as a newly minted Rs 500. Its about a note telling the consumer,in Gulzars words,the nine ways to check if its authentic: Ek note ne kaha tha/Hamesha saath rahta hoon/Kabhi pahchano toh sahi/ Meri rangat to dekho/Chhu ke dekho naksh mere. When an Indian buys a coconut,he has to tap it once. If he buys a bat,he will run his hands along the curvature. If she buys a sari,she has to feel it on her fingers. The same way we should be looking closely at our money too. That was the idea, says Prasanna Sankhe,national creative director,Publicis Ambience,the agency behind the RBI campaign. The ad zooms in on hands,buying,touching,testing; holding a Rs 100 note against the light,as the voiceover says,Zara si roshni daalo/Ye meri nabs hai,dekho; or touching the scrawl of the RBI governors signature: Aur meri handwriting toh dekho,governor saab se milti hai.

If the Kerala ad cut out the clutter,this campaign,made on a budget of approximately Rs 60 lakh,revels in the busy everydayness of north Indian small towns. It was shot by Will Humphris,a cinematographer who has worked on Hollywood movies like Clash of the Titans. Will did a great job. It took a foreigners eye to notice the day-to-day things that we take for granted, says Sankhe.

Sarkari ads have rarely been sleek boring fonts and dull voiceovers telling people to vote or get a polio shot or be happy with the countrys success. But government officials seem to have realised that a crossover is possible. I agree that the advertising done by the government has been dull and drab and has to be changed, says AP Frank Noronha,who took charge as director-general media and communication at the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity DAVP,the primary multimedia advertising agency of the central government,a year ago. The Bharat Nirman ads two years ago by Percept/H are examples,he says,of government campaigns that tried to do something different. If you notice the new ads,you will see that they are not run-of-the-mill. We are determined to have the best on board, he says. Several ad agencies are empanelled with DAVP,including Dentsu,Percept/H,Crayons and Lowe Lintas.

State governments have more flexibility when it comes to employing private ad agencies,as campaigns by Kerala,Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh go to show. Central government ads work under restrictions. There are many private agencies empanelled with us,but we have our in-house team. Also,we have to keep many things in mind. For instance,we cannot simply use the PMs picture. We need the PMOs permission for that, says Noronha.

While private ad agencies have been making government ads for a while now,it is the right kind of bureaucrat that makes all the difference. Piyush Pandey,executive chairman and creative director,Ogilvy South Asia,has worked on many government campaigns like Mile Sur,National Literacy Mission and the Gujarat tourism ads. He says of the latest television ad for the Indian Railways: I have never worked with such a professional team from the government in a long time. The chairman of the Railway Board called me up and told me that we had to show the lifeline of the country. It was an open brief. He shot the film in Kolkata in less than a week.

Advertisers say that the demands and rewards of social sector advertising are different from selling soap. It feels good to be part of something that affects peoples lives. When you make an ad for the masses,it is not just a product. You are trying to reach out for a good cause and you feel good about it, says Sankhe.

Noronha will also remind you that the audience for sleek advertising is mainly urban. We did a great Gandhi Jayanti ad,and even the Bharat Nirmaan campaign was much appreciated. But these ideas work only for the urban elite. When we go to the rural people,they like concrete ads,where a straight-up photograph is more effective, he says. Perhaps,simple stories can also be told better.