Smokers ambushed with chants of 'Raam Naam Satya Hai'
O&M has turned the humble public lighter into a chanting lighterat points-of-sale in an effort to dissuade smokers
Ananya Saha | Delhi | February 22, 2012
'Once a smoker, always a smoker,' goes the saying. Apart from the statutory warning (accompanied with horrific pictures of cancerous body parts) on cigarette packets, there is nothing much that has been done to dissuade smokers. Cancer Patients Aid Association, however, wished to take a new initiative to dissuade smokers from smoking in an innovative way. And this is what O&M's on-ground campaign has achieved for them.
“The challenge was both very simple and yet at the same time very tough. Simple because all you have to say is please do not smoke – it is not good for your health but also incredibly tough because the world may have said it in as many ways as possible. We went for a totally fresh approach. We thought why not make the lighter itself the medium. And by lighter we mean the public lighters that almost all cigarette shops in India are fitted with. This lighter isn't just a convenience for a smoker who has just purchased a loose cigarette, it's also a vantage point around which most smokers chat and catch up,” elucidated Rajiv Rao, National Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather.
The objective was to ambush the smoker at the point-of-purchase. “So all we did was that we turned this lighter into a chanting lighter – every time a smoker tried to light from it, it played 'Raam Naam Satya Hai,” Rao said. The chant is sung when people's corpses are carried to the funeral pyre. This implied that even if smokers hated the idea, they will not be able to ignore it.
“Smokers were taken aback by our new way of spreading the message. One press of the lighter led to varied reactions from people – shock, fear, amusement, and even anger. But as anticipated most of them did not light their cigarettes after that, and some even threw theirs away,” said the spokesperson of Cancer Patients Aid Association.
The Video:
The video was also put up on YouTube. Within a week, the video has had more than 109,350 views, 721 “likes” and numerous comments. Websites such as Dailymail.co.uk and CBSnews.com have also picked up this viral video.
The chanting lighters, currently, have been placed in Mumbai. The other major metros will also see this on-ground campaign soon, Rao informed. The mass media campaign is also in planning stage right now.
Credits:
National Creative Directors: Abhijit Avasthi, Rajiv Rao
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