How advertising agencies gave UP politicos a makeover

It has so far been a closely guarded trade secret, but the fact is that image-building agencies promote the interests of parties across the political spectrum in Uttar Pradesh.

The state's Big Four - Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, BJP and Congress - remain reticent when it comes to naming the dream merchants responsible for the airbrush job.

But advertising agencies such as Mumbai-based Goldmine Advertisement, Lintas, McCann Erikson and Percept H have been past masters of this art in UP. The same firms were reportedly engaged for the 2012 assembly elections, too.

While their main assignment was imagebuilding and influencing opinion-makers, the political parties had also utilised the services of some agencies for bringing out newspaper and TV advertisements. Some other Mumbai firms were assigned the task of making short documentaries.

Multimedia Advertising Agency head Kapil Kapoor said the agencies were hired by political parties to woo the high-end section of opinion-makers as well as the electorate. "The agencies also select those media-savvy members of a political party who can convince the people with their arguments on news channels," he pointed out.

"In addition to this, surveys are conducted to understand the nature of criticism of a brand (even a politician or a party is projected as a brand)," he added.

Courtesy: Mail Today