Remember BJP’s “India Shining” campaign? While it didnt exactly help them shine in the elections, it was perhaps the first time in a long time that an actual campaign was carried out based on a central idea.. the only other ones i can think of were by Indira Gandhi – ‘Garibi Hatao’ and ‘Indira is India’, but ‘India Shining’ was at a different level and aimed at a different target audience..A few days back, i saw an ad by Happydent, which i thought would have been a great ad for the above campaign too- because it ended up with a lot of people smiling and getting the city to shine withtheir bright teeth.
Which made me wonder if thats the future of Indian politics.. ad campaigns executed by the country’sbest agencies after going through the whole hog.. i can imagine Laloo briefing Piyush Pandey on his party’s vision, guiding light (himself), the manifesto, the gambhir samasyas which they would like to address, the audience they would like to speak to, the budget for the campaign, all over a clay cup of buffalo milk that Rabri treats her special guests with… the brief would perhaps be given in railway compartment or Laloo’s home in Bihar so that Pandeyji can soak in the ambience and the true spirit of all that Laloo stands for…..
and somewhere in Delhi, Manmohan Singh is quietly spelling out the points that Madam has carefully jotted down for him, and patiently trying to explain to the hotshot creative guy why making a video featuring him and Soniyaji with the song ‘Rock and Roll Soniye’ would not be such a bright idea, especially considering that Amitabh appears in the original video… because Amitabh is so close to Amar Singh’s Samajwadi party.. Amar Singh, who is so thankful for his khushnaseebi, because his ad would feature the Big B, Small B, Jaya B and if he could persuade Anil,even Tina Bhabee…
Buddhadeb hoping that his cadres wouldnt see red on Rituparno making an ad with him and Bipasha, so that in Bengal, Mamta has ‘No Entry’…Down south, Chandrababu Naidu would be making a laptop presentation to Nagesh Kukkonoor on his plans for Hyderabad and almost ending the story when Nagesh suggests it should be called ‘Hyderabad Blues’..and Narendra Modi arguing that he has enough troubles already and cannot allow a campaign that goes ‘Kem Che’ because of its guerrilla warfare and revolutionary connotation..
until next time, if they think, they Cannes 🙂
ha ha ha…
Trouble is they can’t – think that is.
I knew the India Shining Campaign would be BJP’s nemesis because they didn’t take into account the groundswell of resentment of the have nots. The campaign sort of rubbed it in.
“Rock and Roll Soniye” lol now that would be an ‘item’ number I would like to see :))
ROFL…the best little politically incorrect piece I’ve read in a while!
LOL 🙂 and this reminds me…the new warcry should be “jab tak suraj chaand rahega…munna/circuit ka naam raheyga”.. the movie rocks i tell you!
PI : 🙂
e: they are pretty imaginative while swindling, you know.. 🙂
silverine: the thought was good, the timing bad, i guess..
cherie: thx 🙂
aqua: yup, that it does 🙂