India ethical advertising

The pitch for ethical advertising is getting louder. Around 240 individuals, including 50-60 industry leaders, have signed a pledge to create advertising with a conscience.

Industry representatives, under the banner of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), took the pledge to sensitize younger advertising professionals about creating responsible campaigns. CEOs and mid-level managers across sectors and advertising agencies have come forward to support the movement, which began last week at the GoaFest, an annual conclave of advertisers and creative agencies.


This follows the efforts of leading multinational food companies like Coca-Cola India, Hindustan Unilever, Nestle, PepsiCo, Kellogg's and General Mills, which had voluntarily committed to change food advertising for children last year.

"ASCI has been spreading awareness on self-regulation in advertising for many years. We felt the need to broaden the scope so that leaders can act as inspirational role models for youngsters in the industry who are eventually going to create the advertisements," said Rajiv Dube, chairman, ASCI.


When a Colvyn Harris, CEO, JWT, or an Arvind Sharma, chairman and CEO, Leo Burnett, or a Mayank Pareek, managing executive officer (sales and marketing), Maruti, takes the pledge, they send out a strong message to the younger team members to create responsible advertising.

ASCI, which has been a self-regulator in advertising for 25 years, has been creating awareness among people over the last few years to come forward and register complaints against advertisements which they feel are misleading, dishonest, unfair or not in good taste. "We have now felt the need to sensitize the young people who join this advertising industry in great numbers every year about creating advertisements with a conscience. The aim is to build consumer confidence in advertising," said Sam Balsara, chairman, Madison World.


While 240 individuals have already taken the pledge, Balsara, who is also a consultative committee member of ASCI, said the council would continue to plead with the industry so that more leaders and individuals come forward to take the pledge.

The pledge reads: "To my organization, business associates, industry and to society at large, I pledge to ensure honesty & truthfulness, decency in advertising, non-exploitation of vulnerable sections of society especially children, fairness in competition. I commit myself to advertising with a conscience."

The CEOs of seven food companies, in a pledge signed last year, had decided to implement company-specific voluntary measures to meet the objective. These measures were in support of parental efforts to promote healthy lifestyles. The companies also agreed that there would be no communication related to products in primary schools, except for the products that fulfil specific nutrition criteria.

condoms and india

More married couples in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh use condoms, while those in southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu prefer other methods like sterilization to prevent pregnancy. But there's no reason for couples in the north to brag. While they practice safe sex as they've learnt from ad campaigns, experts claim single sex partners down south are, perhaps, being more intelligent.


Family welfare statistics of 2009, released by the ministry of health and family welfare, puts Andhra at the bottom of the list on condom use among married couples, with only 0.5% using them. Karnataka comes next with 1.7%, followed by Tamil Nadu, with 2.3% condom users.

Delhi tops the charts, with a whopping 22.9% of couples using condoms—more than four times the national average of 5.2%. Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh follow behind, with 15.5%, 11.8% and 8.6% of couples using them.

In south, the most preferred method of contraception is female sterilization followed by IUD (intrauterine device). Although these states fare poorly in terms of condom use, they rank the highest when it comes to female sterilization and use of IUDs. In fact, AP tops the list, with almost 63% women undergoing sterilization, followed by Karnataka (57.4%) and Tamil Nadu (55%). This could also mean that men make the contraception decision, often asking women to undergo sterilization.

Says VM Katoch, director general of Indian Council of Medical Research and secretary, department of health research, "This is an interesting trend and as more people in south use permanent sterilisation methods, it shows they are making an intelligent decision when it comes to having children. That said, condoms could help prevent reproductive tract infections even in monogamous couples."

Other experts believe women in southern states are probably more aware of alternatives. "I think birth control pills and IUDs are better methods of contraception than condoms. Since women in these states know more about them, they want to try them out," says Dr Priya Selvaraj, a Chennai-based obstetrician and gynaecologist.

The failure rate of condoms is cited as one of the reasons for its low use. "Condoms could fail. Also the couple need to use condoms every time they have intercourse, unlike an IUD where the device can be inserted and forgotten for five years. Condoms are good when trying to prevent HIV and STD, but for monogamous couples, condom may not be the best option," says Dr RV Thenmozhi, gynaecologist at Fortis Malar, Chennai.

the shadow of a Zoozoo / zoozoo ads

ZooZoos are advertisement characters promoted by Vodafone during the Indian Premier League Season 2 (IPL). Zoozoos are white creatures with ballooned bodies and egg heads who are used to promote various value added services of Vodafone.The ads were created by Ogilvy & Mather, an agency that handles Vodafone advertisements and the films were shot by Bangalore  based Nirvana Films  in Cape Town, South Africa.
After all the ZooZoo antics in the online and offline world, Vodafone has released 'The Making of ZooZoos' online for all to see.
The characters created for the telecom brand's value added services (VAS) have taken on a life of their own in the social media space with the official Facebook page for the ZooZoos claiming to have hit the 70,000 fan mark recently.

No, they aren't animated characters. They are human beings who were made to wear body suits   . "The design of the characters is such that one gets fooled into thinking it is animation," shrugs Rao, which was indeed the very illusion that had to be created. "In a sense, it is 'live' animation!" he quips, referring to the fact that it was all shot live.   Prakash Varma, ad filmmaker, Nirvana Films, has directed the commercials, and reveals that the Zoozoos were a big challenge to create. The practical aspects of how they will move, talk, gesticulate and emote were very important. Essentially, costume design and artwork were crucial elements.

"It took me three weeks of pre-production to understand how it will work," says Varma. There were two fabrics that were considered for the body suits, and one was rejected for it had too many wrinkles and was shiny. The wrinkles would have shown when the characters moved, thereby shattering the illusion of animation. "So we chose the more practical, thicker fabric," Varma explains.


The production team divided the outfit into two parts: the body and the head. The body part of the outfit was stuffed with foam in some places, while the head was attached separately. To make it look bigger than a human head, a harder material called Perspex was used, which in turn was stuffed with foam (with scope for ventilation).


If one wishes to understand the size of this head, here's a fact: a human head would typically reach up to the mouth level of this giant Zoozoo head. "We kept the hands and legs thin, which is why we cast women – and occasionally children – wearing the costumes," says Varma. The thin limbs, contrasted with big bellies and a bulbous head, all add to the illusion that these creatures are 'smaller' than humans. Sets were created to suit the size of the Zoozoos.

Cinematically, this 'size' was a trick: the creatures look smaller than they actually are on screen, to portray a different world of sorts. For this, the speed of shooting was altered: Nirvana shot it in a high-speed format to make them look the size that they do.

Furthermore, simple sets/backdrops were created and spray painted with neutral Greys – a colour of choice so that attention isn't diverted from the main characters. For a supposedly 'outdoor' shot, even the shadow of a Zoozoo was kept 'live' and not done in post production: it was painted in a darker shade of grey on the ground. An even lighting was maintained throughout.
There was virtually no post production work done.

The films were shot by Nirvana in Cape Town, South Africa, with the help of a local production house there, called Platypus. Incidentally, the same combination of people also worked on the 'Happy to Help' series last year. When asked whether Cape Town is fast becoming a tourist spot for Vodafone and Nirvana, Varma laughs, saying, "Oh no! It's just that we are very comfortable with the team there and know what sort of work to expect from them."

Nagpal adds here that the production cost had to be minimal for unveiling such a large number of commercials. "Otherwise, our production costs would exceed media spends," he quips. 

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