Indian Railways (IR) has come out with a large-scale corporate campaign, making this the very first time it is advertising via an ad film on TV. As the result of a well-considered, deliberate move, the release of the campaign coincided with the opening day of the ongoing Commonwealth Games (CWG). The campaign will run through the course of the event and will also be used in the long term. By virtue of being one of the lead partners for the CWG, Indian Railways will utilise a lot of the FCT (Free Commercial Air Time) that it has received from the CWG authorities, for this campaign.
Indian Railways’s first television commercial - showing a ’human train’ running through the streets and buildings of Kolkata - is a hit on YouTube. What hits you though, is that the Desh ka Mel train appears to have no seats for one half of India. There is not a single girl or woman in the long train that snakes in and out of homes, up and down staircases - it is made entirely of men jogging along in single file.