Rakhis From Aarey
How an ancient Hindu festival saved the trees of Mumbai.
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Challenge:
Mumbai’s Aarey Colony is spread over 1,619 hectares (5 times the size of Central Park, in New York) and it’s often referred to as the Last Lung of Mumbai. The Bombay Municipal Corporation, though, believed that this green space was ideal for urbanisation and went ahead with the Draft Development Plan (DP) 2034 – a plan to urbanise green spaces in Mumbai. Or, a plan to hack down Aarey Colony to 14% of its current size (234 hectares) to make way for roads, malls and a business district. Mumbaikars across the city were left fuming.
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Cultural Insight:
Our campaign draws inspiration from the ancient Hindu festival of Raksha (protect) Bandhan (relationship). It’s a festival celebrated by a billion people every year, where men pledge to protect their sisters. The sister in turn ties a knot of protection or RAKHI on the wrist of her brother to seal this bond.
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Solution:
With saveaarey.org we launched a public awareness campaign: Rakhis from Aarey – Protecting the Last Lung of Mumbai.
A campaign that draws inspiration from the ancient Hindu festival of Raksha (protect) Bandhan (relationship). It’s a festival celebrated by a billion people every year, where men pledge to protect their sisters. The sister in turn ties a knot of protection or RAKHI. This powerful symbol of duty and protection, Rakhis, became the idea and identity of our campaign. We thought why not send a Rakhi from the helpless trees of Aarey to influencers and opinion makers powerful enough to protect the trees.
A campaign that draws inspiration from the ancient Hindu festival of Raksha (protect) Bandhan (relationship). It’s a festival celebrated by a billion people every year, where men pledge to protect their sisters. The sister in turn ties a knot of protection or RAKHI. This powerful symbol of duty and protection, Rakhis, became the idea and identity of our campaign. We thought why not send a Rakhi from the helpless trees of Aarey to influencers and opinion makers powerful enough to protect the trees.
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Execution:
On World Forestry Day we launched our campaign by mailing these Rakhis and letters to the Prime Minister of India, Chief Minister of the State, acting legend Amitabh Bachchan, cricketing great Sachin Tendulkar and Mayor of Mumbai city. We didn't stop there. We sent several thousand Rakhis and 1647 personalised letters in three languages to the most important people in Mumbai and India. Then we took the campaign on ground to the people. We turned hundreds of trees into listening booths. Each tree became an emissary of the movement. Then we connected people to each other on rakhisfromaarey.com. Here, people could send a personalised letter and Rakhi to anyone they thought could help the cause.
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Results:
We reached over 56.9 million people on social media. Radio channels covered us collectively for 4 weeks including two-week-long activation programs, reaching over 51.24 million radio listeners. We also earned 100% organic PR worth $2.3 million. Several superstars including Akshay Kumar and Ranbir Kapoor accepted a Rakhi. Most importantly, because of continued public pressure the Chief Minister of Maharashtra announced a stay order on the development plan and kept Aarey untouched. Not bad for a knot of thread.
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Awards:
- Black elephant (Best of show) @ Kyoorius Designyatra 2015
- Blue elephant @ Kyoorius Designyatra 2015
- Blue elephant Winner @ D&AD Kyoorius Advertising Awards 2015
- Effie finalist in Positive-change 2016 (Asia Pacific)
- The Work 2016 - Direct
- The Work 2016 - Work for good
- 3 Inbooks @ D&AD Kyoorius Advertising Awards 2015
- The Work 2016 - Direct
- The Work 2016 - Work for good
- 3 Inbooks @ D&AD Kyoorius Advertising Awards 2015
- 2 Finalists @ AD Stars 2015
