Tata Tea outlines a social revolution with Jaago Re Version 2.0
Take pre-emptive action before any unfortunate incident occurs, by which time it’s often too late. Work on “preactivism” instead of “reactivism”.
“Next time,” says the actor guiding the narrative as the ad draws to a close, “wake up before the alarm goes off.” This thought, in a nutshell, sums up Jaago Re Version 2.0, the new Tata Tea campaign that aims to instigate social change through cause-related marketing. It follows in the footsteps of “Jaago Re”, a hugely successful campaign launched in 2008 that tackled several social issues — including women’s empowerment, voting, and corruption — and encouraged the citizens of the country to participate in active change.
A preview screening of the powerful television commercial (TVC) propelling the new concept was held at The St. Regis Hotel in Lower Parel, Mumbai, on 13 February, where Sushant Dash, Regional President – India, Tata Global Beverages, explained the vision behind the movement. The accompanying tagline, “Alarm bajne se pehle jaago re”, asks viewers to take preemptive action before any unfortunate incident occurs, by which time it’s often too late. Thus, it promotes an idea of “preactivism” instead of “reactivism”.
“From a culture of apathy, we have moved to ‘activism’,” said Dash, speaking at the unveiling. “Today, the youth participates. There’s anger; people take up issues. It’s a positive sign. But that activism often happens after an event is over. For us, it’s important that we change this ‘reactivism’ to what we call ‘preactivism’. Jaago Re Version 2.0 is about a new paradigm, a new language. It is about getting the youth and the consumers to do things before an event actually occurs.”
We live in an age where heightened awareness leads to discussions and outrage in society and, according to Dash, anticipating and preventing these incidents is a natural progression from there. “What we want is a behavioural and cultural change, in terms of timely activism. The alarm is a representation of that untoward event. The call-to-action is about conversations, about people understanding this concept.”
This movement will be implemented in three phases. First up is the TVC, which addresses current issues such as farmer suicides, rape, and civic disasters in its content. The advertisement will be accompanied by large-scale digital augmentation driven through social media over the next 8-10 weeks, as a way to establish the overarching concept of “preactivism”.
Following that, Tata Tea will act as a facilitator, ensuring the participation of the youth in the causes it tackles. And finally, Dash explained, the brand will “walk the talk”, acting on its own to initiate meaningful change, over the next 12-18 months.
This approach mirrors the previous campaign as well, which established the idea of Tata Tea being synonymous with not just ‘waking up’ but ‘awakening’. For instance, the brand worked closely with the NGO Janaagraha to enable the youth to get registered for voting, during an earlier campaign.
The new campaign picks up from where the last one left off. Instead of focusing on individual subjects or issues, Tata Tea understands that greater awareness can be created through cause-related marketing. Thus, they have decided to broaden the scope by creating a novel, all-encompassing approach to activism. Amer Jaleel, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, Mullen Lintas, spoke at the event as well. Discussing the strategy and planning of the campaign, he said: “We looked for so many subjects. While looking for them, we found that any new subject we had, either we’d done it in the past, or somebody else is doing it now. Through that journey, we realised that a brand that sparked off social brand-related activism needs to elevate itself and go beyond just the subjects. The snoring, in the ad, is a metaphor for how we’re snoring through these times when we should we waking up just before.”
‘Anthem of Apathy’, the latest campaign from Jaago Re Version 2.0 by TATA Tea sees an exclusive international release tomorrow, February 14, 2017.