I vividly remember the displeasure expressed by Gulzar when Congress acquired rights to use his oscar winning song "Jai Ho" for their poll campaign. I guess Gulzar had a fair idea of what happens to a beautiful piece of art when it is politicized. His bhay(fear) came true when BJP came up with their "Bhay Ho" campaign to counter Congress's "Jai Ho". Well political parties fascination with movies/movie songs/movie stars is not new. If you remember Congress chose "Chak De Gujrat" as its poll slogan in Gujrat assembly polls and thought of riding on the huge success wave of SRK starrer "Chak De" but unfortunately/fortunately they were outdone by BJP's "Jeetega Gujrat" campaign.
No one knows whether a poll campaign is going to succeed or fail but political parties are spending obscene amount of money on them. Right from hiring the best PR agency to creating websites for their prime ministerial candidate everything is done lavishly. It all started in 1984, when Rajiv Gandhi felt that electioneering needed proper marketing and communication techniques, and he roped in Rediffusion to take care of the party’s campaign that year. It didn’t take long for other parties to follow suit – the BJP, for instance, got Trikaya Grey to do its advertising.
The 2009 elections has come as a breath of fresh air for many advertising agencies who were choking in current economic slowdown. Political parties are spending several hundred crores of rupees on this branding exercise. So voters today has to choose from many political brands available in the electoral market be it brand Manmohan, brand Advani or brand Mayawati.
They are all trying to create their own brand image in voters mind. I don't know how successful they will be in creating their desired brand image in voter's mind to attract his vote. Being a voter myself I will try to project the brand image I have in my mind of these politicians. Well I will be using a technique called "Chinese Portrait" generally used in marketing research questionnaires. So I will ask this questions to myself : What comes to your mind when you think of these politicians? following will be my answer:
Manmohan Singh : Pears Soap - "Pure and Gentle" (Because he is a gentle sardar)
Lal Krishn Advani : Dettol Soap - "Everyday Protection" ( He is promising to protect us from day to day terror attacks)
Well the last one is tough...
Mayawati : Liril Soap - "Lime Fresh" (She has that freshness as a politician which is missing in above two)
My sincere apologies to Deepika and Preity :).
So the big question is whom should I vote for? Going by the brand preference I prefer Pears in winter(Chennai doesn't have one is a different story), Dettol during Monsoon and Liril in summers. So this makes the whole thing complicated. I wish we could have seasonal PMs :).
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