Tendulkar may bat for BMC's campaign on saving water

Sachin Tendulkar could be the face of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) forthcoming campaign on water. If everything falls in place, the star cricketer will be seen endorsing the cause of water conservation — a pressing issue in the city which requires upto 4,550 million litres per day shortly.

A senior BMC official told Business Standard, “We’ve held preliminary talks with Sachin. We are awaiting a formal consent from him.”

For a city reeling under a 15 per cent water cut, the choice of the batsman to endorse the campaign is just right, point out BMC officials. “That’s because he belongs to the city. People love him and are likely to take him seriously when he says something on the subject,” the official adds.

Mumbai currently gets 2,320 million litres of water per day against a supply of 3,450 million litres per day during normal monsoons. The key issue here is the large-scale pilferage of water to the tune of 560 million litres. BMC has already launched a massive drive against the water mafia in the city. In addition, the civic body has also initiated an exercise against illegal water connections.

As part of the drive, BMC has lined up a heavy-duty communication exercise to propagate the message of water conservation. For Tendulkar, who has endorsed issues such as AIDS awareness in the past, this will be the first association with a subject that is not only pressing but also political in nature.

Advertising professionals opine that getting Tendulkar to endorse the campaign is a masterstroke. It will work though, if backed by hard facts. “Nothing works like fear. If the campaign has a bit of hard facts going alongwith Sachin’s endorsement, it is likely to drive home the point better,” says Sainath Saraban, executive creative director, Leo Burnett, Delhi. “Basically, a call for action has to be there,” he says. “The message has to be simple”. “That will get people to act,” adds Saraban.

This call for action is imperative for subjects such as water and power conservation — issues that affect the lives of people on a daily basis. “These are subjects that need constant reminders and have to be done on a sustained basis,” says Ishan Raina, chief executive officer and managing director, Out of Home Media (India).

For instance, two years ago, 2.2 million residents of Sydney, Australia took part in a campaign, orchestrated by Leo Burnett for the World Wide Fund for Nature, to reduce energy consumption, by switching off their lights for an hour on a certain day. The initiative was such a hit that other cities across the world took the lead to adopt the campaign in their respective areas. From one city in 2007, the initiative saw the participation of 400 cities in 2008 and 4,088 cities in 2009. Earth Hour 2010, to be held on March 27, 2010, is likely to see more cities join the list to dim their lights for an hour. “Its a movement today which is beyond what anybody comprehended two years ago,” says Saraban.