If you are a Twitter user in India, then on Saturday 12th December in evening you must have seen almost a whole deluge of tweets regarding the Battibandh Campaign. The Campaign is essentially an Indian version of an international green initiative in which (primarily) houses switch off their lights for one hour for purpose of contributing to conservation of energy. The idea here is to make a mass cut in energy consumption so as to make some substantial contribution to the cause of curbing Global Warming.
I too got a whole stream of tweets mentioning #battibandh. But somewhere I saw the time is 7:30 - 8:30 PM and some said its 8:30 - 9:30 PM.
Well first of all, let me show my praise for the campaign. I believe it has huge potential and could make a significant contribution to its cause,if only it was planned that well.
During that evening when I was on Twitter, Anushka Manachanda ( @IAmAnushka ), the Golmaal-singer sent a tweet saying that she was going to a Jewellery exhibtion of a friend and said that she wondered whether they would switch off the lights at this time. and that followed a whole series of interesting tweets between me ( @smallcityguy ) and Anushka. I felt that Exhibition Gallery and the Jewellery Designer were only doing there business and it would be totally absurd to ask them to switch of lights. In reply, Anushka tweeted me the following solutions to it :
@smallcityguy well,I think any exhibitions would get moved back or forward by a day & concerts would get pre & postponed @battibandh
@smallcityguy Just like on a public holiday.Streetlights would remain on and residential buildings would switch off. @battibandh
@smallcityguy Restaurants could do special candle-lit dinners and societies could organise sing-song sessions.And shops/malls? @battibandh
I think if we can plan it all the way Anushka said, why not plan its publicity all in advance? I mean seriously. You have a campaign, which if people follow, will cause them to change their weekend plans and you are informing them right on the day of campaign? What sort of campaign is this?
Had the idea of this campaign been put into public domain during Diwali or at least one month after it, it could have made sizeable amount of impact. Let's say just after Diwali, the campaign could have been like this. "You used a lot of Lights during Diwali, now will you please turn them off for just one hour to save your own Planet Earth?". This campaign line or something similar (but more aggressive, more creative perhaps) could have been used since Diwali make the Battibandh Campaign more effective.
Now that I have nearly finished this blog post, Anushka tells me that they announce the date in advance and that the campaign is in its 3rd year. Well, I know it may well be its 3rd Year, but I never came to know off the dates in advance. I came to know about #battibandh only when I logged onto Twitter
All I am saying is that, I heardly saw any publicity of the campaign on Twitter (forget TV or Radio) prior to 12th December. With this level of publicity, you cant expect business and homes (or individuals) to act follow this campaign. We must not forget that Mumbai is a busy city and that most people are ignorant to campaigns like these. And a part of reselience that Mumbaikars show after these terrorist attacks actually means they are simply ignoring all this and moving on with heir lives. With this sort of attitude of Mumbaikars, the only way to make campaigns like #battibandh effective is to make aggressive publicity so that the idea of the campaign sits well in their mind and makes their conscience notice the hours and act for it. Simply telling some good influential celebs on Twitter to RT the tweets, won't work on the grassroot level..!!
My Suggestion is to tap the popularity of that show on SAB "Taarak Mehte ka Ooltah Chashma". That show has enormous following in all small towns all over the country. So why not use it to get accross the real message of the campaign to the people?
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