Public Service Campaigns by the Government
After a long time, I saw a ‘public service’ campaign in mainstream media. While the last high-profile campaign in this category was to promote AIDS awareness through usage of condoms, this has not hit the feverish pitch that the earlier campaign did. And of course, the H1N1 hero campaign which was as much a whimper as the virus itself in this country!
The campaign I am talking about is a cause that is close to my heart – Blood donation.
It is actually weird that we don’t see as many public service campaigns in mainstream media. Reasons:
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Almost all marketers think “What’s in it for me?”. I still remember from my advertising days in Lintas (now Lowe) the internal competition that used to happen for the sole hoarding in Bangalore sponsored by ‘The Hindu’. They used to carry only public service messages. I am not sure if it is still on. Anyone from Lowe Chennai can confirm it for me please!
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Public Service departments of the government do not believe in advertising and even if they do, they do a shoddy job of it. Exception being the “Pulli Raja a.k.a. Balbir Pasha campaign which created a storm of sorts and was recently followed up with an equally good campaign on ‘condomania’. In fact, the second campaign was so complete in their approach, that they had a very successful jingle, which became a ringtone with record number of downloads!
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To hand it to the public services department of the government, they operate with pathetically low budgets and believe that the processes are ‘one-size-fits-all’. You can’t have three agencies pitching for the account through a tender. C’mon, give advertising a break.
But what was interesting about the Blood Donation campaign was the execution. It looks a little tacky and I think the look suits the cause. Because, the bulk of the population, which is from the strata that is shown in the commercial are the ones that have the volumes to achieve blood donation ‘targets’ if there is one. The storyline is simple, lucid and has a ‘twist’, with the interviewer’s chela (the odd looking woman) suddenly stepping away from the table and making the ‘respect’ obvious.
The TVC does the basics right. Informs the viewer about blood donation, adds a cause for your birthday, safety aspects are thrown in liberally and makes the ‘boy next door’ look as much a hero for his noble act.
I also heard the radio spot. It seems a straight lift from the TVC. I believe that the TVC is great because the radio spot could actually be stand alone and still is able to communicate the tentativeness of the birthday boy, the message and the interviewer losing his comfort on hearing that the guy who is up for a job is ’nobler than me’. All this without any visual help!
Good job guys! Keep it up! Wish to see more public service campaigns like this come up! 
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