JWT books Red Ribbon Express

Before starting with the "news' portion of the article let me first mention a few things about the concept of Red Ribbon Express (RRE). I am doing this primarily because it is for a good cause and tell me, isn't it people like you and me who can spread as much awareness about such social causes as possible? The government is doing its bit, alright, but it is, seemingly, not enough. So, as citizens and educated professionals, heck as just human beings at that, why can't we do our bit? Okay, sorry for getting a bit carried away.

Anyway, Red Ribbon Express is a national campaign developed jointly by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF), NACO (National AIDS Control Organization) and NYKS (Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan) in 2004. The broad objective behind RRE is to reach, mainly, the rural population and educate the rural population about HIV/AIDS. Since 2007, the structure exists as a joint effort of UNICEF and NACO.

RRE is much like the Lifeline express that is operating to provide health care to rural population. RRE is aimed at growing the level of comprehensive knowledge about HIV/AIDS and will work around breaking the silence and taboo around HIV/AIDS and change the approach towards this infection through communication.

And now for the news bit ' JWT Delhi has gained approval of Red Ribbon Express to handle its creative functions. The agency will handle creative duties for media campaign to educate people about the train. In addition, JWT Delhi will also be executing design for RRE for an entire year. The express train is going to run till 2010. During its last run, the train halted at nearly 180 stations throughout India. It is expected that the train will halt at around 200 stations this time round.

JWT was selected following a multi-agency pitch in which the presentations included submission of technical specifications and financial bids. It is believed that the account size of this campaign is 15 crore.