| | By Harsha Pramod @ Tuesday, March 24, 2009 8:57 AM
| |
| | Election canvassing is no longer confined to inexpensive advertisements for political parties in India. It is now a corporate affair with the mainstream parties roping in giants in the advertisement space to fire up their campaigns. The parties are looking at multilayered strategy to suit the different media.
 The Congress plans to use promotional videos featuring the song 'Jai ho' from the Oscar winning movie Slumdog Millionaire extensively on television and radio channels across the country to canvass for the Lok Sabha (House of the People) elections. The party bought the exclusive rights of the song for $198,490 (Rs 1 crore). The Congress has hired two advertising agencies, James Walter Thompson (JWT) and Crayons to prepare the party for the upcoming elections. The party is expected to launch more films and jingles as part of their campaign.
'Fauladi Baju, Atal Irade...Dil Mein Goonje Desh Raag' goes the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) jingle, which will be simultaneously released all over the country through television and radio. The BJP has reportedly roped in Frank Simoes-Tag and Utopia for its election campaign. The party’s slogan is 'Mazboot Neta', Nirnayak Sarkar meaning strong leader, decisive government.
The short ad film featuring the party's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani is in singer Roop Kumar Rathod's voice and is written by Rajeev K Mahaan. The nearly three and a half minute ad film would feature party chief ministers and leaders rallying behind Advani with the tricolor. The radio jingles are written by poet Nishit Sharan. The Election Commission (EC) reportedly asked the BJP to remove a line from the jingle, which the party agreed to.
The EC recognises that electronic media can, if used properly be an important source of information for voters across the country. It can provide the widest first hand education for voters on political parties, their symbols, various leaders and different issues in the election. The electronic media is considered the single biggest source of information of voters in terms of debates, campaign, and overage, notes the EC.
The EC has strict guidelines for the print media as well. In the case of advertisements, especially in the print media, if the advertisements are with the consent or knowledge of the candidates, it will be treated to have been authorised by the candidates concerned and will be accounted for in their election expenses. All producers must record a copy of their programme off air for use as reference in case of any disputes.
In order to telecast on the state-owned Doordarshan (DD) and broadcast on All India Radio (AIR), each party would receive time vouchers of five minutes. A party can choose any representative and will not be allowed to use more than 20 minutes of the total time either on DD or on AIR. The parties can advertise between the last date of nominations for the first phase and two days before the last of the dates of poll.
Guidelines
The EC has defined clear guidelines forbidding the parties from criticising other countries and attacking religions and communities. Political parties are also banned from making obscene or defamatory remarks, inciting violence, and anything on contempt of court. Aspersions against the integrity of the president and the judiciary, anything affecting the unity, sovereignty and integrity of the nation and criticism by name of any person will not be permitted, according to the EC.
If anyone thought a meaningful discussion between the contesting parties would benefit the viewers, the parties failed to live up to it. The live telecast of a television programme, on the Hindi news Star News 'Kaun Banega PM', meaning who will become the prime minister, was disrupted in Nagpur following a fiasco with supporters of both Congress and BJP fighting with each other when union minister of state for new and renewable energy and sitting Congress MP, Vilas Muttemwar and BJP nominee former MP Banwarilal Purohit faced each other.
For canvassing online, the BJP is clearly ahead. The BJP has been trying to connect with the younger voters through this media. Following this other parties have also started websites and blogs to woo the voters online.
According to a study by the Centre for Media Studies (CMS), the Lok Sabha elections would cost about $2 billion (Rs 10,000 crore). This is reportedly more expensive compared with the US presidential election campaign spread over a year. Apart from money power, the campaign will also highlight the power of electronic media in politics. X
Check Out
Social networking media warm up for elections
Political parties grease palms for votes
Politics of blogging, even Andhra CM in the fray
Check out the World news at our sister site The News
| |
| |  Add Comment | |
| | | |