Poll-itical ads

Weeks of hectic campaigning and countrywide trudging by political leaders, with some creative advertisements thrown in for good measure, have borne fruit for the Congress.The fivephase Lok Sabha elections took political advertising to a new level, with parties shelling out huge sums to snare the 100 million first-time voters. The Congress decided to continue its association with the ‘Aam Aadmi’ and its slogan—’Aam Admi Ke Badte Kadam, Har Kadam Par Bharat Bulund’, aimed to touch a chord with the common man. The new slogan was reportedly penned by union information and broadcasting minister Anand Sharma and senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid. For JWT, which bagged the Congress account along with Delhi-based Crayons Advertising, penning creatives for political adverts was a first. “We decided that we would not address voters as a large mass, but instead look at six specific sections like the youth; farmers; rural poor; urban middle class; women; given the Congress’s empowerment of women efforts through its ‘Ladli’ campaign and India’s overall progress story,’’ said Rohit Ohri, managing partner at JWT Delhi. “We did two adverts on the Congress heritage, recapping the history for all the new voters coming in to vote this year. The young crowd could identify with the Congress history only through their history books. We ran two films for 10 days, which encapsulated, in a very entertaining manner, the history of the Congress.While the first part went up till Rajiv Gandhi, the other one was from Rajiv Gandhi to Manmohan Singh. We wanted the voter to feel a sense of pride which would resonate positively with a party that has shaped the nation,’’ he added. The BJP had also outlined its political brief to some 16 advertising agencies, before deciding on three. Research firm IMRB highlighted that the key difference between the Congress and BJP campaigns was that the Congress campaign “was positive, revolving around hope, youth and a better tomorrow. The BJP was more stark and grim—economic crisis, rising prices, jobs losses’’. People vote for a better tomorrow. They do not vote out of fear, but vote for hope, Ohri added.