The Brief

The world's largest democracy was born out of protests. So naturally to protest is our birthright. But over the years political parties have misused this freedom. Protesters destroy public property worth millions of tax payers' money at the drop of a hat. The 9th Fundamental duty of the Indian Constitution says, 'Safeguard public property.' What can an image bank do? The Client: indiapicture.in, an image bank that's fighting the entry of global giants and established local players. The brief: To demonstrate the power of images. To start a debate in society and offer a solution to stop destroying public property.

Creative Execution

For the first time, an image bank reached out directly to the whole country, offering free images to violent communities to burn instead of the actual public property. Political leaders saw that the images can also draw the attention of the media and the government, so they don't need to burn actual public property anymore. Blow Up allowed us to demonstrate not only the power of images but also the quality and variety of the images on indiapicture.in.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

We offered free images of public property to violent protesters. With a message - burn the images, spare the public property. The offer went directly through NGOs, word-of-mouth, emails, phonecalls, facebook page and virals to political parties. First the Gujjar community fighting for reservations, then an angry mob in Bihar, used the idea to send a message to the government by burning images of a local bus and a government car. We showcased these two 'demonstrations' at an Exhibition followed by a Panel Discussion between leaders from three big national parties, Congress, BJP, BSP. The creative community was also invited.

Results

Political leaders saw that burning images draws media and government attention, without burning public property. Leaders from two locations known for violent protests burnt images of public property in their demonstrations. Leaders from Mumbai, Goa, and the highly volatile Kashmir are keen to use images in their future protests. 29% increase in clicks on indiapicture.in within 1 week of first event. Conversations among creative communities The CEO, Dushyant Mehta on national TV - Doordarshan and other channels. Potentially we saved Rs. 70,00,000 of tax payers' money. All for the cost of two life-size prints and cocktails for 200 Exhibition guests.