Babus wake up to smart advertising

Our skylines are dotted with ugly hoardings of politicians. See those hoardings rubbing shoulders with that of a Zoozoo or any private sector bank for that matter, and you wonder why advertisements from government enterprises are rarely pleasing to the senses.

However, if you’ve seen the latest TV commercial for the Indian Railways, you may have been pleasantly surprised. A beautiful montage of a queue of adult men, playing the game of ‘train’ in the by-lanes of Kolkata, supported by Ashok Kumar's memorable ‘relgaadi, relgaadi...chhuk chhuk’ song, the ad is a cut above typical hard-sell government ads that usually come equipped with too much text, voice-over and a brand endorser (think Amitabh Bachchan, think pulse polio).

You’re surprised once again, a few ad breaks later, watching a TV commercial for Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Meant to increase awareness and alertness towards fake currency notes, this ad is a first person account narrated by the currency note itself. Taking personification to new heights, it almost appears as if the note is gently prodding the viewer to “look, touch, feel” it.

Learning from the private sector
Both commercials mark a new phase in the advertising life of public sector undertakings (PSUs), with the quality of the creative work slowly catching up with companies in the private sector. It's something that has certainly brought cheer to advertising agencies who, for long, have despised the bureaucrats’ poor understanding of marketing and advertising.

Prasanna Sankhe, national creative director, Publicis Ambience, the agency which made the RBI TV spot, says, “PSU clients are unconventional, since they're not from a marketing background, and we have to explain the technicalities in detail. Having said that, only genuine insights and refreshing creative ideas find resonance with these clients. Their responses are almost like those of the average consumer, and not the calculated feedback of a private sector marketer.”

It is this approach that has for years made PSU advertising look “very very Doordarshan”. But it appears that working with new kinds of people and better agencies — not just the ones in Delhi-NCR — has also helped bring fresh thinking into the ad-making process.

“To shoot the RBI ad, we got UK-based cinematographer, Will Humphris to come on board,” says Sankhe.

“This ensured that the beauty of India's small lanes and everyday life, which normally becomes a blind spot for Indians, was captured through Western eyes. Secondly, we asked Gulzar to write the lyrics for the ad.”

Prakash Varma of Nirvana films, who directed the commercial for the Indian Railways, says that he was given the opportunity to try something new.

“Originally conceptualised by Piyush Pandey and his team at Ogilvy, I think the campaign was executed very smoothly. There wasn't the usual back and forth that comes with government ads.”

Ad industry insiders say that this change in outlook on the part of the babus has not come out because they are more qualified or savvy in marketing, but simply due to greater exposure to an environment that is producing better advertising than ever before.

The improved aesthetics in PSU advertising actually began to be noticed with the Incredible India! campaign in 2003, when Amitabh Kant, then joint secretary in the ministry of tourism pushed the bar higher in what was considered acceptable 'tourism advertising'. That's when Kerala Tourism's winning line, 'God's Own Country' was coined, followed by the now globally acclaimed Incredible India! campaign.

After Chimanlal Charlie
Adman Prathap Suthan, who worked on the Incredible India! campaign, says that Kant made good use of his travels abroad to various tourism conferences. “Very few people in positions of power understand or enjoy advertising. But Kant is sharp and not the regular bureaucrat, since he knows how other countries branded themselves. That was a big contributor to the campaign’s success.”

On the recent spate of good commercials, he says, “The government has certainly woken up and is taking a close look at what companies in the private sector are doing. The RBI, for example, must have seen the maturity that has come into advertising campaigns done by banks.”

Suthan is right. Creative aspirations of government-run banks soared with the iconic and much awarded SBI ATM campaign four years ago. The commercials which popularised the character ‘Chimanlaal Charlie’, are amongst the funniest in Indian advertising.

Our babus could learn from what countries across the globe are doing. A senior advertising professional, who refused to be quoted, pointed out, “Look at the lovely advertising campaigns for British Airways, Air France and other international airlines. They have class. Sadly, Air India or Indian Airlines have nothing similar to show. Why, they've even dumped the Maharaja, which represented the Indian splendour.”