Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Monday, September 26, 2016
Thursday, September 22, 2016
Saturday, September 17, 2016
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Monday, September 12, 2016
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Monday, September 5, 2016
JIO MODI JI, BUT WITHIN THE DECORUM OF YOUR CHAIR
As I groggily
picked up the newspaper for my daily dose of morning read, I had the PM staring
at me from the front page of Times of India, Mumbai. I almost dismissed the ad,
thinking it must be some government ad, or worse some election ad. But as my
still-in-sleep eyes scrolled down, it struck me that this was actually an
advertisement for the corporate giant Reliance’s latest offering- Jio.
My sleep snapped
out and my head started whirring up questions any media and communications
professional would ask, on such an endorsement by the PM of India. Having spent
close to five decades in advertising and communications, learning the intricate
ropes of my various roles, as I climbed up the ranks to head Media, Creative
and Planning departments, I belong to a generation that is extremely particular
about being on the right side of law, more so, as we practiced our profession. Studying
and applying Laws, Acts, Regulations, especially those that governed our
clients’ businesses or our profession, was not just a job, but our responsibility.
As communication advisors to the client, it was the onus of the advertising
agency to ensure responsible communication of the client’s products/ services;
the ownership was on the agency to ensure we were truthful and well within law
in the ‘what’, ‘how’ ‘where’ and to ‘who’ we communicated.
To our then
woe (but what seems a delight now!), the media houses we dealt with had
vigilant legal departments who swooped on any errant advertiser like a hawk, if
they ever noticed an advertiser violate the law in any manner. My media friends
would often tell me how they had to court arrest because of a miss on their
part to notice violation of acts such as the The Emblems and Names (Prevention
of Improper Use) Act, Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements)
Act, or the Lotteries (Regulation) Act.
This morning,
I was asking myself who could have committed such a gross blunder of using the
PM’s name and picture in an advertisement that was so blatantly selling a very-much-for-profit-product?
To me it was just the kind of miss I would expect from the young and fiery
millennials, who can often overlook the fine print in the frenzy of their
enthusiasm. To my horror, by evening the PM was beaming and punching away at a
phone in the TV ad of Jio, like modelling is his second skin! What got my goat
further was that the ninety-second clip, in addition to the PM, showed images
of Swami Vivekanand, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and Mother Teresa. The
Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950 (http://industries.delhigovt.nic.in/functions/emblems.html ), in its
schedule clearly prohibits the use of Mahatma Gandhi’s name amongst others. I
am hoping that of the RTIs filed in this case, Kiren Rijiju or any other Minister
of Modi Government will respond, or even better take action with as much
alacrity as he did on a query pertaining to the same act in May 2015.
With all due
respect, being the smart businessman that Mukesh Ambani is, I have the
conviction that he may have well sought the permission of the Central Govt to
be able to run these ads and to get the PM to be his chief ambassador. If he
did, then would it be asking for too much from the Ministry of Information and
Broadcasting or the Ministry of Corporate Affairs or any other relevant
Ministry to tell us citizens this simple truth, and zip the wagging tongues?
In a democratic
set-up where the Government of the day is supposed to be non-partisan, I and
some like me would like to know why the people’s elected representative, the PM,
is making an exception and advertising for a very-much-for-profit company? Even
if it is explained off as just the PM dedicating this service to the nation, why
not be the face of BSNL, MTNL where he can announce an investment to create a
giant bigger than Jio? By choosing to be the face of a product from a billion
dollar company, who is accused of stealing gas worth 11000 crores from government
fields, what message is the PM giving to India’s citizens and India Inc? Is
this the very same man who declared ‘Na khayenge, na khane denge?’ How fair can
play be for the other telecom players- Airtel, Vodafone, Idea etc., if the PM
himself chooses to endorse a competition in the market they operate? For a man
who has been trying to market the country abroad as a great place to invest,
what
signal does he
send by compromising on his neutrality as PM, with his controversial, over-the-top
endorsement? Will the PM or the government he runs now encourage a barrage of brands
to indiscriminately use India’s Emblems and protected names of icons, with
their silence on the umbrage this ad has given rise to? The PM could have
chosen a much more transparent way of going about this messy episode by simply
amending the act, if need be, by going through vote in both the houses of the
Parliament, before modelling for these ads. Even simpler, if a permission has
been given by the Central government, a government spokesperson just needs to
tell the nation about it and the reason why they have made an exception. Some pertinently wonder if the PM too will now
attract a jail term up to five years, apart
from penalty of Rs 50 lakh if Jio fails, as per the government’s recent nod to
impose stringent accountability on celebrities for endorsing products and for
misleading advertisements that make unrealistic claims.
The questions
are many, and we can only hope our ever so expressive PM will have a valid answer
to these, to explain the same to the citizens who voted him to power. While
there is no denying his PR and marketing skills, it may just help to also be on
the right side of decorum, especially as the Head of the State and as someone,
millions of ordinary Indians look up to.
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