Ogilvy Delhi promotes Swachh Bharat Mission to tackle open defecation

By A Correspondent

Ogilvy Delhi has launched a campaign to curb open defecation. Under the Swachh Bharat Mission, one of the key ills to curb is open defecation. The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India, wanted to develop communication that would help bring about this change.

Amitabh Bachchan has shown his commitment to the Swachh Bharat Mission and was a natural choice for a campaign on behaviour change. It was also clear that it needed to stay away from messaging and protagonists that came across as preachy. Therefore ‘Bachchanji’ was used in this campaign to make it memorable and interesting.

Said Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman & Creative Director, Ogilvy South Asia: “Open defecation is not a new or modern problem. It is so deeply entrenched that it is considered normal. To raise a doubt in people’s mind about it was a challenge in itself. The communication would have to break habits and would need to be endearing and assertive without being preachy.   We have worked with Mr Bachchan on many communication campaigns and he himself is associated with the government of India across various issues. Thus the task for us on this campaign to curb open defecation was to use our celebrity’s strengths and yet create communication that is differentiated.”

Added Ajay Gahlaut, ECD, Ogilvy Group Companies, North: “Any campaign that is designed to change behaviour at a mass level needs to be easily understood by all sections of society. We had Mr Bachchan for our TV ads, so that ensured that the campaign would not be missed and would appeal to everybody. The challenge was to make the campaign a little different and refreshing. Which is where the idea of ‘BachchaJi’ and ‘BachchanJi” came about. After that it was just a matter of making sure that their light -hearted banter addressed all relevant barriers.”