“Lead India 09″ campaign by Times of India Group

I am sure you must have come across advertisements or hoardings of “Lead India 09″ campaign being conducted by the Times of India Group. The copy of the advertisements are well written and the message very appropriate. The campaign can be rated as an excellent public relations campaign and nothing more.

Times of India Group (TOI) is spending a huge amount of money as well as devoting a large amount of valuable space in its newspapers on promoting this campaign but I think the money is not being well spent if their objective is to seriously bring about a meaningful political change in the country. Of course, as a PR campaign the money is being well spent.

I believe the time for PR campaigns is over. Its time for action. Its time to walk our talk. If TOI is serious about bringing about a change, then I will take this opportunity to propose some steps it can take and get its money’s worth as well as do something for the country.

First, TOI needs to establish its credibility that it is not in bed with the same politicians it is releasing advertisements to change. It invites politicians, top industrialists and celebreties to be its editors for a day. For instance, Times of India has invited Mr. Chidabaram (Finance Minister) a number of times and even Chief Minister Ms. Shiela Dixit in Delhi. I am quite sure that it must have invited other politicians in other cities as well. It is obvious that such an act compromises the ability of the newspaper to be unbiased while reporting news. I am quite sure that after having a politician as its editor, TOI will not be able to write critically about them or their political parties in a negative manner. For instance, you will never find anything negative written about Mr. Chidabaram in TOI publications. In fact, all articles praise Mr. Chidabaram.

Second, Times of India “Lead India 09″ campaign advertisements tell us that TOI is asking the people to join the most powerful signature campaign India has ever seen. It is asking people to send a SMS message to them. One, I hope TOI is not trying to make money through SMS. I think I would like to know if they are doing this which I think in all probability they are. Two, I have argued that signature campaigns, rallies against politicians like the ones we we saw after the Mumbai attacks are not going to help as politicians know that nothing is going to come out of it. And they are right. However, the anger against politicians is not visible anymore. As I have mentioned on my website, shouting from outside is useless. We need to get inside if we want to bring about a change in our lives and our country.

Let me give you a simple example. We have all read about 7 people killed in 6 days because of the faulty design etc of the flyover at Dwarka. Newspapers will write articles and then forget about is. No action will be taken to save the lives of the citizens and the worst part, no one will be held accountable. Why can’t we take action? Why can’t we hold the people responsible for this mess accountable? Simple.

Now if TOI is really serious about changing the political system and the corrupt politicians, then I would like to make the following suggestions:

(a) Write about ALL the candidates that are contesting an election for a particular seat in a somewhat equal and unbiased manner.

(b) Use the hoardings it has rented for the above campaign to promote ALL the candidates that are contesting an election for a particular seat. Similarly, it can utilize the money it is spending in other media like radio and TV.

Now you must be thinking how will this help us in improving our political system. Let me explain.

When I went to vote for the Delhi State Assembly elections in 2008, I saw a list of candidates contesting the elections for that seat pasted on each door. I think the list had at least 10 names on it but I was aware of only two names, that is, the BJP and Congress candidate’s name. In fact, I think most of us would not even know the candidates’ name and their background but have voted based on which party we wanted to support. And here again, just two choices come to our mind, that is, Congress and BJP. I even doubt if Congress and BJP candidates will be able to list the other 8/9 candidates that are contesting the elections. It is obvious that the awareness level of the people for these alternative candidates is very low. In fact, almost non-existent.

In marketing, there is something known as the “evoked set,” that is, only those products will have some chance of selling to you which come to your mind when you think of a particular product category. If you do not think of Lux soap when you think of buying a soap, you will never buy soap.

Similarly, when we vote in India, the evoked set of most of us consists of Congress and BJP in Delhi and say SP (Mulayam Singh Yadav) and BSP (Mayawati) in UP. With this situation, do you think we can change the political system? I doubt it.

The reason that we are not aware of the alternative candidates is because increasing the awareness requires a lot of money. Now how many people are there who can afford to buy all the legal hoarding hoarding space like Mayor Arti of Delhi has done? Not many. Those who have the money, go to the political parties to get the election ticket.

It is because of above reasons that I am suggesting that TOI increase the awareness of ALL the candidates contesting elections so that the public becomes aware of all the candidates and it is able to make the right choice.

The solution to our country’s problems does not lie with just more and more people voting as we will keep voting for the same political parties and candidates in larger numbers. In fact, more votes in their favour that will give them more legitimacy. What we also need is viable alternative candidates.

In fact, I would take this opportunity to appeal to all media that the best way they can serve their country and themselves is concentrate on increasing the awareness about ALL the candidates contesting the elections amongst their readers, listeners and viewers rather than spending time talking about a Big Boss contestant. I understand you have to worry about selling your media space but I think a balance would certainly help.

I certainly hope executives at Times of India Group are listening.

Avinash Narula