The "Perfect" Brief

A brief is supposed to be able to communicate the objective of the campaign to the creative personnel so that they can find a creative expression to communicate in a way that the objective is fulfilled. The brief in focus is today is the brief which Mr. Narendra Modi's communication managers might have given their creative personnel. The ads in focus is the radio campaign for "Run for Unity". In the first ad a man talks to the audience, " I have run all my life for the corporate job. Now I will run for the unity of my country, so that my countries' balance sheet becomes the best in the world." This followed by a call to join the run " This run is being organized by Shri Narendra Modi, as a posthumous tribute to Sardar VallabhBhai Patel, who envisioned a one India" The second ad has a woman talking to the audience "I don't run (exercise) , I run all day for my family, for my husband, for my kids. Running over and above this is not possible. But this time I will run, because it is for the unity of my country. It is just a matter of two kilometers. I will definitely run and show my support" Now if we go into dissecting the ads. Firstly we have separate ads for both men and women. The man works, makes money and runs the family where as the woman dutifully looks after the family. The role of the man is that of a provider and the woman is to care for the family and bring up the children. Her life revolves around the family. Now I quote a few lines from the wikipedia page on Fascism "Fascism adopted policies such as promoting family values, including promotion policies to reduce the number of women in the workforce limiting the women's role to that of a mother" "Mussolini perceived women's primary role to be childbearers, while men were warriors, once saying "war is to a man what maternity is to a woman" Another important aspect is that a country being talked in terms of a balance sheet. Now the idea of nation is equated to that of a corporation. The main principle of a corporation is to make money and be profitable. The human beings are reduced to mere resources and the human values sidelined for profit. Now India Inc. will do everything to manage its assets and liabilities. The only worry is whether one would be counted as an asset or liability. Quoting from wikipedia again " Fascism promotes such economics as third position,  alternative to capitalism and marxism. as fascism declares both being obsolete. Such economic system is variously termed by fascists as National Corporatism, National Socialism or National Syndicalism".Now coming back to the advertising, I can only wonder if the makers were given these symbols or these symbols evolved as a result of the brief. It surely was a perfect brief which brought out the ideology so clear.