New Delhi: Congress had launched its ad campaign which pitches Congress vice president and campaign committee chief Rahul Gandhi with a tagline used by main opposition party BJP in 2011.
The ad featured the Congress vice-president with the phrase ‘Main Nahin, Hum’ (Not I, we) in bold, the very same words used by Gujarat CM and PM candidate of BJP Narendra Modi during his ‘better administration’ drive in Gujarat three years ago.
Meanwhile Congress was left to explain the goof-up, a photograph of the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate addressing a meeting in Mehsana in February 2011 with the phrase emblazoned behind him, identical down to the comma, surfaced soon after.
Dentsu India is the agency that created the ad had refused to comment, on account of a confidentiality clause in its contract with the Congress party.
It had won a Rs500-crore contract, along with JWT, for this campaign, warding off stiff bids from leading agencies such as Rediffusion Y&R, Crayon, Percept/H, Grey Group, and Madison World.
The Congress had more reasons for being embarrassed. This was a solo ad projecting Rahul Gandhi, unaccompanied by his mother and Chairperson of Congress Sonia Gandhi or Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said on Friday evening, “The discourse over the past six months evidences that the BJP’s prime ministerial aspirant has an ostensible proprietary right over the words ‘I, me, myself’, while the partnership that has transformed the country over the past 10 years provides the Congress and the UPA a legitimate claim over the word ‘we’.”
Congress spokesperson Shoba Oza said, “The slogan is not anyone’s parental property.”
However Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said, “They (the Congress) are copycats. They are in desperation and are ready to go to any extent.”
Bureau Report
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