"Its awareness campaigns are funky, fun with catchy slogans that appeal to the youth, whose enthusiasm as first time voters is beginning to show. Film stars and celebs add zing to the election commission voter awareness drives.
If the staid, dull and drab ‘sermonish’ appeals from celebrities to people to come out and vote have become, ray, witty, humorous and fun, catching the imagination of the youth, it is because of a young team that is driving the election commission campaign.
For the first time, celebrities are being given scripts that are peppy, in a colloquial language that the young identify with. At the centre of this ‘celebs talking to people like a friend’ campaign is the creative team of a five-year-young advertising company - OPN Advertising - and its director Bala Manian. She is so kicked about the whole thing and the buzz that her company’s social media campaigns have created that she would like to work with government in future too.
Netting superstars, stars from films and cricket and other sports, was easy for the election commission. It has already roped in the Nadigar Sangham that is catching hold of super stars and celebs for awareness creating short films by the election commission ahead of the assembly elections in Tamil Nadu.
Said chief electoral officer of Tamil Nadu, Rajesh Lakhoni, “Shruti Haasan has come on board and so have Kartik and Surya. We are very happy with the buzz that has been created and the enthusiasm of the young voters is very encouraging. We hope that Tamil Nadu will have a very high voting percentage.”
Bala Manian, working with any governmental body for the first time, is thankful of having seen an advertisement in newspaper calling for tenders for social media campaign, invited by the election commission.
“We did it just for the heck of it, to see where one fits in and whether we could do it at all,” said Bala warming up to the company’s association with election commission. Five days after the presentation to the top officials at Secretariat, “we got the account, to handle the social media campaign.”
Since January, we have had absolutely no time as the campaign got off, thankfully to a good reception from the youth and few things have gone viral on social media. Like the cricket Ashwin’s take on elections, delivered in his own style as talking to his fans.
“The script, of course, is ours and celebrities are also finding it fun to do the shoots, which are very different from how they were used in government campaigns before,” Bala said, adding “the creative strength of the agency is what is sustaining the campaign.
And the total support of the election commission officials. Lakhoni, she said, “is one of the best customers our agency has worked with.” Decisions are taken fast and approvals come via watsapp and emails, something that one was not expecting before entering into a contract with the constitutional body.
Lakhoni, seems more like a CEO of a firm that we are used to dealing with. He does not stand on procedures and wastes time, she said.