Iconic Ads: Polio Eradication – Do Boond

In 2002, there was a massive Polio outbreak in North India. UP and Bihar comprised 95% of the cases. There was huge resistance to the polio vaccination.

The Ministry of Health and UNICEF decided to act and got O&M to devise the mass communication campaign for the Pulse Polio immunization program.

The campaign was to allay fears regarding the vaccines and goad parents, especially the rural mother, to bring their babies to the vaccination camps.

Amitabh Bachchan agreed to be the brand ambassador.

Piyush Pandey had a great idea. Amitabh played the role of the angry young man many times. What if he became the angry old man?. Amitabh loved it.

It was Ajay Gahlaut who wrote Do Boond Zindagi Ki’. Ajay and Piyush wrote the scripts with fine-tuning by Amitabh.

They then presented it to the clients at the Ministry of Health and Unicef. The bureaucrats were shocked at how can Mr Bachchan shout? Piyush countered them by saying he was doing it like a father to his child. Since there was concern and love, there was anger because people were not getting the vaccination done. One person from UNICEF got the idea and pushed it through.

Initially, radio was used as the main media medium but later television and other media were also used.

Santosh Sivan directed many films on this program.

The simplicity of the message made the campaign a success, and polio was eradicated in the years to come.