MUMBAI: A new digital campaign. The Boy Who Will Not Stand for The National Anthem, has been conceptualized by digital L&K Saatchi & Saatchi in association with Mumbai based NGO Free A Billion to highlight apathy towards basic civil rights.

The campaign comprises a short video about 16-year old Prakash who lost his life last year because of a pothole. The video has managed to attract eyeballs on merit of its unique title message.

“Free A Billion approached us with a clearly defined problem of basic civil rights. We all face these issues in our day-to-day lives but more often than not fail to pay heed. We wanted this to become a peoples’ movement and therefore it was imperative to tell a true story. The campaign is not just meant for shares and hits but to give every Mumbaikar a reality check, one that would appeal to his conscience and drive him to take action”, said Digital L&K | Saatchi & Saatchi associate director planning and strategy Aarti Samant.

The aim of the NGO is to mobilise the Municipal Corporation, the State Government and the Central Government into taking action to halt the rapid decay of the city and turn India’s commercial capital into the city it should be.  

The film ends by urging citizens to unite and vote and therefore take the first step towards bringing positive change to Mumbai and its infrastructure. For this purpose, the two organisations got in touch with Mr and Mrs Bilhore, the parents of Prakash via a simple, but hard hitting video.

Digital L&K | Saatchi & Saatchi associate creative director Anoorupa Bose said, “This Independence Day, when people stand up for the national anthem, we wanted them to remember victims like Prakash who would not be standing with us. To realise that it’s not just government inefficiency, but our indifference that contributes to our broken system.”

“We were very clear that we needed to be sensitive, not sensational. With communication like this, it’s easy to make it unnecessarily dramatic and emotional. We didn’t need to. The theme and the story of Prakash was emotional enough. We were glad his parents actually held themselves together on this emotional shoot without breaking down like they did the previous day. In the end, we do hope we’ve helped in some small way to move people into action,” added DigitalL&K | Saatchi & Saatchi national creative director Charles Victor.