India @75: Nikita Bhate on how advertising has been transforming mindsets

As India celebrates her 75th year of Independence, we at Adgully are tracing the journey of Advertising and its contribution to the Indian society at large – whether it is bringing about a change in mindsets, or a societal pattern, or empowering different communities or ushering in new thoughts – basically, Soch badal ke rakh diya.

Our aim is to collate 75 most impressive and significant ways in which Advertising has impacted India over the decades. For this, we are reaching out to the Advertising Honchos of India to share the most significant contributions of Advertising to the Indian society and why they consider them to be important developments. We will serialise the story on Adgully’s website in the lead-up to the Independence Day this year in this special series: India @75 – Through the Advertising Lens.

In conversation with Adgully, Nikita Bhate, Business Director - Digital Integration Strategy, Chimp&z Inc, pointed out, “Advertising has played a major role in transforming the mindset of India’s youth. Gone are those days when people were falling prey to the effect of fairness creams with fair models. In current times, consumers have gone through a transparency revolution to bring out the real factor in each brand message.”

She emphasised that Transparency, Purpose, and Empowered Consumers are the three main factors that have contributed positively to the Indian society.

Since today’s youth are increasingly dependent on content served on the Internet, self-education has increased social movements and activism in modern India leading to a positive impact. Bhate cited the example of pop star Rihanna, who created a flutter in India by posting an article on the anti-farm law demonstrations to her 101 million Twitter followers, using the #FarmersProtest tag. “This hashtag has generated 2Mn+ conversations echoing the voices of Indians who were in support of the farmers,” she noted.

Adding further, Bhate said, “Advertising has also helped to create a massive awareness of important issues across India reaching even the rural areas and talking to them in their own language. Thanks to advertising campaigns for India’s polio-free status. Some of the other examples to increase awareness in society are ‘Jago Grahak Jago’, ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ and the most milestone change took place due to ‘Do Boond Zindagi Ki’ for Pulse Polio, which eradicated polio completely from our country and advertising helped a lot to finish Polio so fast.”

Through ad stories, we are able to portray the concept of ‘normalising culture’ by breaking stereotypes,” she noted, adding, “Right from gender inequality to talking about menstrual cycles, advertising has played a huge role in creating voices across India, who can now come forward and talk about anything and everything. Let’s take the Tanishq ad, which was a positive message that portrayed a united front and the beauty of cross-culture marriage. Despite the backlash, it still was successful in influencing many minds.”

Bhate pointed out, “A wave of socially charged and bold advertising that takes up a cause has resulted in creating a positive difference in India. The youth don’t want to be left out of social decisions, including politics that impact them directly. From gender inequality to homosexuality taboos to political apathy, ad campaigns are now progressive and that’s what we needed to bring out the change in India.”

“Advertising has so much power and influence that makes every individual think differently and establish themselves in this modern India with modern thinking,” Bhate concluded.