Viacom18 urges Mumbaikars to get angry for the right reasons

Three films released by the network as part of a digital campaign to promote its CSR initiative, 'Chakachak Mumbai', strive to shake Mumbaikars out of their apathy to unhygienic habits

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | May 16, 2016

Three films created by Viacom18 to promote a cleaner Mumbai have taken Facebook by storm. Each film has been viewed more than 15 lakh times in the course of a week. The entertainment network, which is a joint venture between Viacom Inc. and the Network18 Group, has taken up the cause of a cleaner Mumbai as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative.

All three films were conceptualised by an in-house team and produced by the Production House 'Chapter 30'. The three films titled #GetAngry have attempted to show up skewed societal values, in which issues like cleanliness and hygiene play second fiddle to less harmful issues, which tend to inspire anger.  The films urge Mumbaikars to get angry for the right reasons. Each film compares an unhygienic habit prevalent in Mumbai like spitting on the road, to a less important social menace, which is arguably not as big a problem as cleanliness.

In each film, passersby react to unorthodox social behaviour, but ignore unhygienic habits. So, urinating in public is ignored, but a girl holding up sanitary napkins is not. In another film, passersby stare at a girl in a short skirt offering prayers to an idol by the roadside, but not at people littering the same spot. The third film shows pedestrians commenting on a couple getting cosy on a park bench, but ignoring other pedestrians who are spitting at the same spot.

The films are a part of the broadcast network's corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, titled, 'Chakachak Mumbai'. Another part of the CSR initiative involved cleaning up four slums in Mumbai by a team of volunteers.

Speaking of the insight behind the videos, Sonia Huria, Head, Communications and CSR, Viacom18, said, “We'd done an extensive needs assessment research before we intervened in the communities. One of the key take-aways was that menstrual hygiene was somewhat of a taboo topic and hence it was a significant source of on-ground pollution in these areas. During a brainstorming session with my team, this insight came afore and we realised that even in the upper socio-economic strata, the neighbourhood medical store covers the sanitary napkin pack with newspaper / brown paper before handing it over!”

“That's when we decided to conduct a few social experiments that explored the concept of hygiene – both in its physical and psychological manifestation,” she went on to say, adding, “The idea was not to play judge, rather release it on social media and monitor and learn from the conversations that it would generate.”

While the network used Facebook as the primary platform to host the videos and drive conversations around them, it also used Twitter to amplify the impact of the films. “The #GetAngry Project started out as an experiment to validate certain take-aways from our research findings. Buoyed by the overwhelming response, the network is planning to build upon this momentum to carry forward the overarching Chakachak Mumbai campaign and its underlying thought of 'the road to prosperity lies through cleanliness',” Huria said.

The campaign Chakachak Mumbai is closely aligned with the Union government's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. The network believes that for Clean India to be a reality, a concerted effort was needed to enhance behavioural change along with the availability of toilets. It also believes that that behavioural change could only come about if the message was delivered in the language of the audience.

Huria elaborated, “Essentially we at Viacom18 are great storytellers. And cleaning up India needs a strong storyboard – one that is multilayered and appeals both to the heart and mind. That is what we have chalked out for ourselves.”

As of now, the campaign Chakachak Mumbai has been both on-ground and on the digital platform. While the primary target audience of the campaign are the residents of the four slums in Andheri where the ground work is currently focused, the secondary target audience is the greater India beyond.

Explaining the reason for involving TWIMedia, Huria said, “The way I see it, the concept of hygiene exists both in the physical and psychological worlds. The moment you start thinking clean, you act clean. So while Chakachak Mumbai is the mass targeted campaign that cuts across both the audiences, we launched the #GetAngry Project on the digital medium, as a social experiment that talks about cleanliness of both your physical and psychological realms. Between these two media, we had the two distinct audiences covered. As we scale up the initiative, we could look at more media platforms to amplify the idea.”

The campaign will eventually be extended to other media platforms too. The brand has not yet considered partnerships for the initiative. Huria pointed out that the initiative was part of Viacom18's CSR, so partnerships could only be considered if there was an alignment of intent and ethos.

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