Governments are relying on public service announcements and promotions to successfully transmit vital news and updated protection measures to ensure residents don’t fear and obey safety guidelines.
Recently, Prakash Javadekar, the Communication, and Broadcasting Minister tweeted the detailed SOP for resuming production works in the media and entertainment sector. Javadekar said in his message, “The basic concepts behind the SOP would help build a stable work atmosphere for cast and crew in the industry.”
On 27th August, The Government published a new ad on social media via its PIB accounts on August 21, 2020. The caption for the ad is, “Stop being a Thookichand!”. It includes a scene outside a grocery store of people wearing masks as it rains and standing socially distanced. Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar is one of the men in the line, he sees a man pulling his mask down and spitting. Kumar shames the man for spitting publicly as it propagates Coronavirus and calls him Thookichand.
Filmmaker R. Balakrishnan, popularly known as R. Balki, who directed this ad said that they needed to be specific about spitting in public because it’s a rampant problem in our country. In the ad, Akshay represents the common people who are afraid, do not want to hurt anyone, and will obey what others say. There are occasions when many people wait in queues and stand for hours following social distancing. But, there are some reckless people also who do stuff like spitting in public without any thoughts. This ad is just to set a precedent, because in this country it’s not just about saying “It’s bad, to someone. It’s necessary to assign names to people for their bad behavior, so people don’t want to be labeled bad.
In June, when the country had started the unlocking stage for the first time after the lockdown, the filmmaker released an ad with Akshay Kumar which aimed to tell the people that we have to learn to live with the virus and return to work safely. The ad was filmed with a trimmed team and they met all safety protocols.
Recently, Prakash Javadekar, The communication, and broadcasting minister tweeted the detailed SOP for resuming production works in the media and entertainment sector. Javadekar said in his message, “The basic concepts behind the SOP would help build a stable work atmosphere for cast and crew in the industry.”
Regarding the second ad shooting, the director said, “Everyone has followed the guidelines and we’re sort of following more than the rules, we’re completely being strict by bringing in very few people on the set and taking all kinds of precautions that are necessary.
