We were all greeted by a huge  full page NDTV ad titled  INDIA’S BIGGEST CLEANATHON in the newspaper today. Sponsored by Dettol, the campaign has a tagline ‘A toilet for every Indian’.  Wonderful initiative, indeed!

But, think NDTV also couldn’t resist the whole ‘Why don’t you guys clean up your neighborhood and send us videos of you doing it so that we can make some good content out of it‘ bit that is all over the place after our honorable PM Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Campaign. We are sure that NDTV was tempted to add this bit in their fantastic Cleanathon campaign which was mostly aimed at the ‘A toilet for every Indian’ concept. Check their ad below.

Dear NDTV Special Projects team,  Awesome campaign! We are sure it will do well considering the amazing PR resources and budgets you have.

1. But, why are you telling me to clean up my neighborhood myself? Yes, I am part of the educated Indian middle class who you are targeting through your ad campaign. I repeat, I am the one who is the ‘target’ of your fancy campaigns and also, am the one who is into this ‘shooting videos and uploading it online’ thingies. Not an average person on the street who doesn’t give two hoots about your well branded campaigns.

2. Do you know that we are not responsible for dumping waste on the streets? We segregate and put it neatly outside our apartments, which is picked up by our society staff. So, why do you expect us to clean up the mess ourselves after working hard for the entire week? Or, even clean it once to send you the video for your 12 hour telecast. To set an example for others, eh?

3. Chalo maan liya ki aapki baat sun ke we start cleaning up our neighborhood on our single weekly holiday.  Koi na, 2 weekly holidays pakad lo. Then, do you think those ‘people’ who are clearly not your target segment and are the ones dumping the waste will stop littering thinking ‘Arre these poor educated types will have to clean it up, lets not throw it’.

4. Don’t you media waalas think you should be rather launching specific campaigns using available technology to help citizens like us (ahem..your target segment) to report these neighborhood garbage dumps to the authorities rather than picking up a jhaadu ourselves.

Please just give us structured platforms to report these dumps. Don’t tell us to clean our neighborhoods and send you videos. Not done. #NahiChalega

You could have asked us to send you videos of people peeing on the road or stretches where there are no public toilets or something similar to go with your theme. We would have rather done that. Sending videos just to make your campaign appear successful. #NahiChalega