MUMBAI: Last week, the union ministry of health and family welfare reached out to filmmaker R Balki to produce a public service message for the novel SarsCov2 virus. The film featured Akshay Kumar, explaining that the virus is here to stay for a while and since we can’t stop working for a longer period it’s time to resume work and lives again, but wearing a mask is necessary as it prevents us and others from the disease. In the one minute and 30 second-long video, he consistently urges people to take all precautions before stepping out while ensuring safety.
In the last three months, the government announced several rounds of lockdown, and to make people aware about the disease, it relied on the digital medium and full-page ads on national dailies. It even launched a caller tune for Covid2019 awareness alert and used radio extensively. But there was no specific campaign released by the government officials at that time.
The film's timing coincides with Unlock 1.0 with new guidelines to restart the economy in a phased manner.
The advertisement soon became the talk of the town on social media platforms. Many people praised the ad and applauded the message but a certain section of the society condemned the timing of the ad, owing to the drastically rising cases in the metropolitan cities.
In the ad, Kumar is seen in an avatar of a village man, stepping out of home after the lockdown to start work again, but stopped by an elderly neighbour advising not to go out and remain at home as it’s still risky. Kumar then explains the reasons why work cannot be stopped and shared the vision to wear a mask and take precautionary measures to deal with the pandemic. Towards the end of the film, the elderly man accompanies him to work.
TRA founder and CEO N Chandramouli says, “An actor and a director who have been assigned an advertisement brief by the government, may have control on the creative rendition of the ad, but will not have much say on the messaging. Akshay has done several government ads before this on promoting agricultural schemes, road safety programs, among others, so promoting a government-related cause is not new to him. Whether it is right to ask people to start working with precautions or not, is a divided opinion."
He adds, “Akshay is also no stranger to controversy and criticism, right from the #BoycottNirma campaign after his depiction of a Maratha warrior in a Nirma ad, to his Canadian citizenship, so this one is just one more added to the list.”
Samsika Marketing Consultants founder, chairman and MD Jagdeep Kapoor opines, “Ads of this nature are of an educative quality. They are highly beneficial, though boring. This ad has been made with an attempt to make it interesting with the celebrity and style and light sense of humour. Public service ads are helpful because they are like a lighthouse in turbulent times. They are a guiding light and a glimmer of hope in difficult times and viewed seriously. Such ads usually work due to relevance and the social context."
In the past, as well, the government has used public service messaging as a key tool to aware people and reassure them. Take the example of ‘Do Boond Zindagi ki’ campaign by Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign saw massive support from the audience and encouraged people's participation in eradicating polio from India. There are many such campaigns released by the health ministry over the years, be it HIV AIDS, tuberculosis or dengue and other many diseases.
This showcases that public service ads serve a purpose in mitigating the myths surrounded or to propagate a clear message to the audience and when such campaigns have famous superstars, the message spreads quickly and people actually follow it.
However, this time things are different. The government has decided to start working again because the the economy has come crashing and it’s important to return to normalcy with effective measures.
