Little girl to civilise Delhi

Delhi’s citizens are about to be introduced to a range of civic awareness messages over the next 10 months, right up to the Commonwealth Games in October 2010.A wide-ranging advertising campaign, ‘Come on Dilli’, with the messages delivered by a new city mascot — a cartoon-drawn, seven-year-old girl named Delhi ki Beti — has begun to dot Delhi’s billboards since December 12. India’s Capital will play host to athletes from 71 nations at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.The Delhi government feels that in addition to providing world-class infrastructure and facilities for the event, it is also critical that Delhi’s people come together as hospitable hosts. To instill that sense of hospitality, pride, care and concern for the city, it decided to undertake a public communication exercise.The ‘Civility Campaign’ has started with the outdoor media and will move on to radio, print and television. The campaign has been developed by Dentsu India’s social communications division, citizen dentsu, to which the local government’s stated objective was to enhance Delhi public’s civic sense, to address certain deep-rooted behaviour patterns typical to the city’s civic mindset.

The messages developed by Dentsu point to a greater range of civic awareness building than what may typically be required for just the Commonwealth Games. The use of solar power or the rejection of the use of plastic bags, for example.

Other issues such as pollution, car pooling, using the cellphone while driving, breaking traffic signals and defacing heritage sites are covered through messages that use English and Hindi, English nursery rhyme lines and even references to Ghalib.

Building pride in the city’s heritage is seen as a unifying factor since a significant number of Delhi’s residents have come in from other parts of the country.

Cartoon animals have been used in a rather tongue-in-cheek manner.

The youth who’s taken a toss off his motorbike because he jumped a red light is a monkey; the person defacing a heritage building’s wall is a rat; the chap chatting on his mobile phone while driving is an owl.

“The idea is to convey, in a dignified manner, that the people, in doing the things the ads bring up, are behaving like animals,” said Gullu Sen, national creative director, Dentsu India.

On whether the local Delhi population would respond to a little girl as the city’s mascot, he said: “Our initial mascot idea was a boy, but the chief minister felt we should use a girl child. Besides that, a lot of cities abroad have mascots.”

While it is tempting to compare Delhi ki Beti with the Amul girl who also delivers sharp, witty social messages, Sen preferred that the two not be compared, saying the Amul property has been built over time.

While the campaign’s budget is rumoured to be in the range of Rs 100 crore, there is no official confirmation on the figure. PK Tripathi, principal secretary in the chief minister’s office, said there was no fixed budget.

“We will intensify the campaign over the next few months and will release money depending on the various media used for it. The three-phased campaign will progress from ‘inform and inspire’ to ‘involve’ messages, to culminate with ‘hospitality’ statements.

Dentsu India won the Civility Campaign’s pitch in competition with 11 of the 15 government-empanelled advertising agencies that include some of India’s largest agencies.