An anthemic call for change
A new campaign by GAIL India urges the common man to fight pollution by making the right lifestyle choices
Taking a leaf out of Tata Tea’s Jaago Re pitch, which gave a call for social transformation through action in real life, GAIL India has come up with the “Hawa Badlo” campaign urging citizens to make small but meaningful changes in their lives to fight the menace of pollution. The state-owned natural gas processing and distribution company’s cause marketing anthem has been sung by Bollywood singers Harshdeep Kaur and Javed Ali.
The song captures the story of a young boy struggling to realise his dream of becoming a gymnast as he battles with air pollution-related health issues. The film opens with the young boy practising gymnastics indoors at his house. Given the lack of open spaces to practise and more importantly no fresh air to breathe in a polluted Delhi winter, he struggles to make much progress. The boy’s mother steps in and vows to turn around things for her child by giving him access to breathe clean air. She begins by placing potted plants in the house, switches to a cleaner fuel, that is piped natural gas, and mobilises people in her society to clean up playgrounds and plant more trees to clean up the air.
Thanks to her efforts, we find the world around them changing slowly. Fast forward by 12 years and the boy has grown up to be a youth who has just returned home with a medal from a sporting event.
The objective of the campaign is to gather resources in the form of knowledge, network, innovation and outreach to come together on a single platform to protect public health and the country from the hazards of air pollution, says Vandana Chanana, executive director (corporate communication and corporate social responsibility) at GAIL (India) Limited.
According to a World Health Organisation report released in May 2016, more than 50 per cent of the 20 most polluted cities in the world were from India. Air pollution is an invisible killer, as every 23 seconds an Indian dies because of declining air quality. Even as air pollution is a big health hazard, Indians suffer from low awareness and lack the knowledge to combat it.
The GAIL campaign, conceptualised by Handyyman, argues that fighting air pollution is not only the responsibility of the government, policymakers and environmentalists alone, but the onus is on the ordinary people as well. The key message here is that change begins with us — the people.
Protiqe Mojoomdar, creative producer, Handyyman, says, “We had to come up with a piece of communication that would make a strong case for individual intervention in changing and improving the quality of air that our children breathe in. Change begins at home and all of us have the power to make positive choices — by switching to cleaner and less polluting fuels such as CNG and PNG, and increase greenery by planting more plants.”
The Hawa Badlo anthem banks on sports as the change agent to inspire people to make positive adjustments in their lives. Sports epitomise effort, persistence and sacrifice — and all these characteristics are integral to bringing about a collective change.
“The campaign goes on to show that all our efforts and sacrifices might come to naught if our health is at stake. We have to change the air around us to be able to turn around our future,” adds Mojoomdar.
Air pollution is an invisible killer, as every 23 seconds an Indian dies because of declining air quality