By Malay Desai
From: Dentsu Communications
The Madhya Pradesh-based Hindi newspaper’s new spot continues its campaign that flagged off in 2008. The 50-second film begins with a hostel boy saying ‘na’ to ragging, a woman spurting out the same word to her violent in-laws, a doctor negating a father’s request for sex determination, a young woman opposing eve-teasing and so on. The spot ends with several Indians in various attires saying ‘na’ to form the familiar tune of Saare jahaan se accha. ‘Zidd karo, buraiyon ko na kaho. Naya jahan banao,’ the copy appears, before the newspaper’s masthead.
Bad news is good news. Especially in a media market where the ownership has been consolidating, competitive ads have been on the rise and old horses are marking their territory to keep new players at bay. In July last year, we’d featured the exciting takes by Bombay Times and Firstpost. com, but the ‘rise and be counted’ tone was set by the landmark Mumbai Mirror spot in late 2011 itself and its ripples have simply become stronger.
The Dainik Bhaskar group, one of the leaders of the Hindi market and part owners of the DNA publication kicked off this campaign in 2008 (picking Dhoni at the rise of his starry ascent) and have stuck to it. The peg of this film is ‘the power of no’ and it arrives after a fresh wave of angst in the nation against sexual crimes in the Capital.
Within the short duration of the film, DB has already tackled the major social ailments of our country – ragging, domestic violence, gender inequality, sexual harassment, corruption and child marriage. Thankfully, the visuals and camerawork are serious enough to not dilute the nature of the message. That we require a strong ‘no’ sometimes to protect our values from being degraded is a new-ish approach in a culture replete of consumerist ‘yes let’s do it’ messaging.
If you’re going to remember the spot after a few weeks, it’s thanks to the goosebump-inducing play of sounds – ‘na na’ to the tune of Saare jahan se accha.’ Background music composer take a break, we already have a sure shot win tune. Question is, are you going to remember the spot at all?
With the wide array of subjects spoken of, this spot might be lost in translation across regions with time. Secondly, and the branding guys lend us your ears, what has this ‘say no to evil’ approach got to do anything with ‘zidd karo’ (be stubborn)? Renaming the campaign to the tune of ‘the power of no’ would’ve been more effective, no? It’s an unfortunate age of rising crimes and increasing ideas for media advertising. Hope more of us truly understand the power of ‘no’ and help change this trend.
To watch this film, visit Goo.gl/o94FH
