Swachh Bharat puts offenders in the spotlight, 'cheers' them to shame

Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, a cleanliness campaign initiated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has rolled out a new ad film conceptualised by Grey WorldWide. The film will be aired in ten Indian languages.

 

The film takes a dig at the many offenders who litter, by 'cheering' them for their act.

 

The film begins with a man sitting in his car, sipping a drink out of a plastic container. Upon completing his drink, the man carelessly throws the container out on the street. Seeing this, he is cheered on by everyone around him. His expression turns to that of shame. A voice over talks about his becoming an example to everyone because of how easily he disposes his garbage.

 

The scene shifts to a narrow street where a group of children are playing football. Above them, a Mrs. Manu, ties her garbage and throws it off the roof of her building. Seeing this, all the children begin to applaud as the voice over talks about how Mrs. Manu would put our Olympians to shame with her aim.

 

The next offender is Laxmi bhabhi. She casually strolls to the local reservoir and disposes of her garbage. A group of ladies witness this from the other bank and once again cheer on. This time the voice over talks about how Laxmi’s cleaning is renowned across all the villages in her area.

 

Next is Sukhiya bhaiyya. He is indulging himself in public urination as he waits for his bus. As soon as he gets on the bus, he is greeted by thunderous applause as a garland is put around his neck. The voice over compliments his ability to do whatever he wants. It also compliments his ability to do ‘it’ wherever he wants.

 

As we are once again shown all the faces of our ashamed offenders the voice over says, “Yeh desh, jo aaphi ka ghar hai. Use kyu ganda karo. Thodi sharam karo, soch swach karo” (This country that is yours, why do you insist on making it dirty? Think clean.)

 

Samir Datar, VP and branch head, Grey DelhI, said, “We are delighted to be part of Swachh Bharat initiative. We believe that the idea of shaming people who litter, is a compelling idea and can become a very effective behaviour change tool, once it gets traction in social media and ground activation"

 

Malvika Mehra, national creative director and EVP, added, "There is a saying in hindi 'Jab ghee seedhi ungli say na niklay, tab ungli tedhi karni padti hai'. Despite countless 'Keep India Clean' efforts/messages by the government, we still see a total lack of involvement from our brethren for the cause. The sarcasm in the film is an attempt to drive home the point harder by now literally 'humiliating' the offender, albeit nicely. Hope such efforts lead to a Swachh Bharat indeed"

 

Credits:

Client: Swach Bharat

Creative agency: Grey WorldWide

Creative: Malvika Mehra, Dushyant Chopra, Arpan Bhattacharya, Saumya Aggarwal

Servicing: Samir Dattar, Sanghamitra Chakraborty, Titash Dutta

Planning: Dheeraj Sinha, Ajay Ravindran

Films: Samir Chadha, Sharad Shinde

Voice-over: Mr. Anupam Kher 

Production house: Razorblade Films

Producer: Christopher Wagner

Director: Rahil Patel

DOP: Milind Shirke

Music: Niriksha Ajay Kakade