Taking a direct dig at prominent leaders of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) with its “Dulha Kaun Hai” campaign, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has set the ground for a charged promotional season for the upcoming general elections. Released online on Wednesday, the digital video features actors that look like Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee, among other prominent leaders from the alliance fighting to court a bride.
The video was followed by a second ad with the doppelgangers of I.N.D.I.A Alliance members posed as the 10-headed Ravana. They turn up at a label shop, stating that they need a label for their newly named company.
The campaign, arguably, is the most direct attack by a party on the leaders of the opposition. Though BJP had run a similar campaign with animated characters in 2019 on social media, showing various leaders from opposing parties.
Prior to this, political parties have indulged in criticising the opposition based on their work. There have been several such high-decibel campaigns in the past, which have also brought in shocking mandates during the elections.
One of the the most prominent campaigns in this line has been the 2004 Congress Party campaign, “Aam Aadmi Ko Kya Mila” , which was conjoined with the party slogan of “Congress Ka Haath Aam Aadmi Ke Saath”.
The unsuspectable campaign created by JWT was a direct response to the BJP’s high-decibel “India Shining” campaign, created by Grey Worldwide, and backed by a reported budget of Rs 150 crore for a 120-day campaign.
The national parties, which have been the prime contestants during the general elections for most of independent India’s history were in loggerheads in 2009 again, not just in the political arena but the ad domain too. The results were the iconic “Jai Ho” (Congress) and a retaliatory “Bhay Ho” (BJP) campaign.
The Congress campaign was led by a recomposition of Oscar-winning eponymous song from Hollywood movie Slumdog Millionaire, whose rights were purchased from T-series, reportedly by their agency Percept – and recreated by JWT (electronic) & Crayons (print).
BJP created a spoof to counter the claims in a campaign created by Frank Simoes-Tag and Utopia.
The most iconic battle, till now, however, happened during the 2014 elections when Narendra Modi-led BJP went on a full media blitzkrieg leading to an impressive victory. The iconic slogan “Abki Baar Modi Sarkar” created by Soho Square was led by video campaigns highlighting the misses of the previous Manmohan Singh-led Congress government.
The campaign also pushed Narendra Modi as the leader of tomorrow, riled with nationalistic fervour, and dedicated to development. This campaign was created by TAG from McCann WorldGroup. The media mandate for the party at that time was with Madison.
On the other hand, Congress was building on its own promises of supporting the youth of the country along with other development-focused initiatives under the campaign “Main Nahi Hum”.
They also launched an anthem “Har Hath Shakti, Har Haath Tarakki ''. The advertisement also mocked Narendra Modi's Gujarat model of development and spotted a punch line—"No hand has a magic wand that can be waived to achieve progress". US-based Burson-Marsteller, JWT and Dentsu India, a Japanese publicity agency were given contracts to provide an image makeover for the party and its vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
In 2019, tables turned as Congress took a more aggressive approach against the ruling party, talking about their shortcomings in the previous term. Their “Ab Hoga Nyay”. The theme song was penned by Javed Akhtar and the campaign video filmed by Nikkhil Advani. Percept Edge was the main agency behind the high-decibel campaign while the campaign was designed by digital media firm Silver Push.
On the other hand, BJP promoted Narendra Modi on the back of work done in the previous tenure in the “Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar” campaign. The agencies working on BJP’s accounts at that time were Ogilvy, Moving Pixels and McCann WorldGroup.
It will be interesting to see how this political war intensifies in the coming days as the INDIA bloc is yet to release its election campaigns. Reportedly, Congress has brought in IPG Mediabrands and DDB Mudra on its agency roster for this year’s election campaign.
More on how political advertising during general elections transformed over the years in Impact’s next issue.
