Tackling AIDS head-on – with success! (Picture source)
If there is one outdoor advertisement that doesn’t go amiss in Kolkata’s busy thoroughfares, it is Buladi. This plump middle-aged matron’s image has sunk deep into one’s mind bit by bit, and that is where its portrayal is successful. It shows that social message, if conveyed deftly, can indeed strike deep roots.
Buladi campaign was started sometime last year when West Bengal State AIDS Prevention and Control Society (WBSAPCS) took help of Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), the advertising agency. Credit goes to O&M for having created a masterly campaign, and to WBSAPCS for sustaining it for a long time. AIDS is an issue that needs careful yet fast handling, and spreading the message of its danger is a top priority. To that extent, the Buladi campaign has met its purpose.
And now, going by news-reports, of all the places, the Buladi campaign is going to be shown in puja lightings. Consider the paradigm shift over the past year. Earlier, it would have been a taboo suggesting using condoms for safe sex in puja lightings. Now, it is welcome. This is heartening because it shows an awakening even if it accompanies a ‘supposedly social stigma’.
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