Feature

By Annie Rani

Jaago Re: A Call to Wake Up!

India’s youth have—in the words of Jawaharlal Nehru—a tryst with destiny to shake the foundations of the political world they were born into and taught to accept. Recently, the United States found itself swept up in change in part because of its young voters. Is India waiting on its youth to change—with a little nudging from corporate brands?

The 2009 Indian general election is different from elections past. Campaigns are being launched all over the country to urge the Indian public to vote. It’s common for political parties to rope in movie glitterati to do their canvassing for them, and savvy candidates make use of new media effectively. But this time, the four most effective election campaigns are being run by corporate brands: “Jaago Re” (Wake Up) by Tata Tea, UTV Bindass' “Ungli Utha Vote Kar” (Raise Your Finger and Vote), “My Idea” from Idea Cellular and “Lead India/Bleed India” by the Times of India (TOI).

“The Jaago Re ad definitely impacted me,” says 27-year-old Muthukumaran, a middle-class senior trainer at a local call center. “I’m going to vote for the first time because in the past, I’ve never liked the candidates.” Muthukumaran reveals that the first time he saw the Tata ad, he logged on to the site and registered. “I went to Jaagore.com and got registered because they are right, if you can’t exercise your fundamental right, what use are you?” Continuing on its mission to wake the youth, the campaign is conducting free “Shut Up & Vote” rock concerts by Thermal and a Quarter, a Bangalore-based band, across ten cities in order promote the electoral process.

If the November terrorist rampage in Bombay got Indians to sit up and take notice, then these ad campaigns are getting them to stand up and be counted. Take for instance the “My Idea” campaigns featuring popular actor Abhishek Bachchan. The ad has the star dressed as a bespectacled stereotype of a politician’s assistant. Bachchan uses text messages to gather public opinion on a proposal to construct a mall on farmland. When the “junta’s awaaz” or public opinion turns out to be negative, he gives a rather pert warning to aspiring politicians.

But are these corporation’s ads merely seeking to further the corporations’ own images, while riding the election wave? Twenty-nine-year-old homemaker Thamayanthi believes so. “The campaigns don’t matter to me,” she asserts. “I’ve been voting ever since I got my card and feel that these campaigns are a thin line between self-promotion and social activism.” Software Engineer Suresh Kumar differs: “Even if their motives aren’t pure, the point is they are getting the message across,” says the 24-year-old. When asked if he has voted before, he replies, “Nope! Didn’t see the need for it, but the Tata Tea campaign definitely got me thinking… and Aamir too.”

The “Aamir” here is none other than Bollywood’s A-list star, Aamir Khan, who has made it his personal mission to aggressively promote voting. In recent months, the actor has been very vocal about the need for the younger generation to get its act together and vote. In fact, it would seem that it was TOI’s Lead India ’09 that got Aamir rolling. So moved was the man by the TOI message that he wrote in a letter to the editor, “I woke up on the third of March to a very bold and strongly worded message on the front page of The Times of India. Not only does it reflect the popular mood, it is also provocative in the right way. My sincere hope [is] that it provokes all to get out there and vote against everything that we as a nation are fed up of. If there’s any way that I can be of help to spread the message then just give me a shout.”

Bina Krishna, who works as a marketing executive with a small publishing house, says, “Aamir’s involvement with the campaign got me logging on to the Lead India website.” The 28-year-old admits that though it was initially out of curiosity, she soon developed an avid interest in the candidates in her constituency. “Honestly, I realized I didn’t know anything about anyone on the candidate list. But I did do enough reading to help me make up my mind.” Some like Bina are more forthcoming about their indifference than most others. “I think it’s just that many young people are not interested,” Thamayanthi opines. “They have better things to do than stand in a long line to vote for someone they have no knowledge about. And oh, yes, at the end of the day they don’t think they can make a difference.”

But if statistics are to be believed, the popular vote campaigns that are grappling for viewers’ attention are encouraging the youth to make a difference. Tata Tea’s “Jaago Re” campaign succeeded in getting more than five lakh (500,000) registrations and 80 percent brand recall for Tata. They have an active presence on popular social networks, with more than 15,000 members on Facebook and almost 13,000 members on Orkut. Idea Cellular’s “For the people, by the people’ poll site saw 264,472 people voicing their opinion. TOI’s Lead India website has blogs filled with the angst of youngsters who see their nation being slowly eroded by corrupt politics.

Opinions might be divided on whether these campaigns are simply a successful marketing strategy in sheep’s clothing or a sincere appeal to the public. Is it too much to hope that the Indian youth realize that they can be the change they want to see? Only time and the tide of the general election will tell.

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