Mumbai Police's 'no honk' campaign navigates streets with a nudge, humour

For brands struggling to bring about real change in customer behaviour, the lesson from Mumbai Police's campaign against honking is: Don't get preachy, get funny, say experts

The scenario is straight out of a typical crowded street in Mumbai. A jumble of cars, rammed haphazardly around a red light with sweating and swearing drivers crushing their car horns; a toxic cocktail of noise, dirt and flaring tempers is all in a day’s work in the city that finds no time to turn the lights down. In its latest campaign against honking in the city, Mumbai Police is picking just such a scene out of the daily lives of the people in the city to make its case, hoping that humour and by holding up a mirror to public behaviour, it can drive real change.

‘Horn not okay, please!’ is the tagline and the ad shows the police having a good laugh at the expense of honking drivers, with clips from real-life situations at select signals that were fitted with a decibel meter. As the monitor hit 85 decibels, the signal turned red for another 90 seconds and a line flashed on the screen, ‘Honk More, wait more’. “Find out how the @MumbaiPolice hit the mute button on #Mumbai’s reckless honkers,” the Twitter post read, the day the campaign launched online. 

At play, is an old marketing tactic that uses shaming and reinforcement to nudge people to change their ways. Ambi M G Parameswaran, brand strategist and founder for Brand-Building.com says, “The idea is to marry intelligent technology with something that consumers are used to, to bring about behaviour change.” Showing a countdown number (a ticker that showed the signal time going up with the decibel level), he adds, was a game changer.

This is not in the first time that ‘nudge’ is being used by a civic body to bring about behavioural change. Swachh Bharat campaigns have done the same. Ambassadors for the government’s scheme, both Amitabh Bachchan and Vidya Balan have used a mix of humour and shame to drive home the message against open defecation and cleaner public spaces. 

Ashish Mishra, CEO, Interbrand India believes the campaign is more of a social experiment than one to bring real change. He is sceptical about its true impact while agreeing that the ad is well done and is deservedly winning a huge share of likes and shares on social media. He says, “It raises a relevant issue, addressed in a whacky way and is executed well. 

Good luck for the award shows!”  So far, the video has garnered 3.5 million views and has been shared multiple times on WhatsApp and other messaging groups.

The lesson here for brands is that tough messages are appreciated, if mixed with humour and presented in a manner that is not preachy. Parameswaran believes that the attempt to bring out a serious message without taking a high moral ground has worked. “That is the reason the video went viral within a few minutes after it was tweeted out by Mumbai Police,” he says, adding that if such a signal were installed in a few more spots, it would amplify the message and bring about change. 

The ad looks to bring about real behavioural change, without bringing down the baton on offenders. But, marketers say, the more entrenched the behaviour, the more difficult is the task at hand. And getting Mumbai drivers to toe the line is a tough ask. 

Measuring the impact of such communication is also difficult. Although with the array of digital trackers now at their disposal, advertisers have a measure of the reach of the message and acceptability, as mapped through likes and shares. However, every attempt moves the needle forward and hence worth the effort. And that is also what Mumbai Police would hope to achieve; drive more discipline and less noise on the roads,  while winning a few hearts on social media.