Iconic Ads: The Hindu – The Youth are Watching

The Hindu wanted to reach out to the youth. It wanted to show that it was a vibrant and aggressive newspaper.

The idea was to engage, create a conversation with topics that affect them. This would also be the forerunner to other topics and conversations.

The broadsheet had decided to focus on governance, specifically politicians and the poor example being set by them for the new generation.

A newspaper has many roles to play, one of which is being the conscience keeper of society. The affront to governance by politicians was an obvious choice as it affects the youth presently and in the future. Ogilvy’s Piyush Pandey was indisposed with viral fever and was watching television. He saw some drama being played out by politicians which disgusted him. It just took him 5 minutes to script it. He opined that the youth needed good role models. If politicians make a mockery, it affects the youth too, as it sets bad examples.

The film cautions the adults and gives a lesson to the youth. It was also time to acknowledge the impact their misdeeds created rather than setting standards.

Assisting Piyush were Joono Simon, Arkadyuti Basu, Pradeep Ravindran & Sanjana Mathur.

This was shot in Mumbai’s Sophia College by Prasoon Pandey. The students told him that they saw scenes of such behaviour in parliament.

Initially, Prasoon wanted to use the noise in a parliamentary session as the background score but when he saw the college students having a go at each other, it hit him that playing poet Narsinh Mehta’s ‘Vaishnava Jana To’ would bring out the irony.

Behave Yourself, India. The Youth Are Watching.’