Government plans to revamp its consumer awareness campaign Jago Grahak Jago

NEW DELHI: The government is considering revamping its consumer awareness campaign ‘Jago Grahak Jago’ to boost its reach and appeal.

Under ‘Jago Grahak Jago’ — a consumer affairs ministry initiative started in 2005 — the government uses print media advertisements, audio and video campaigns to educate consumers about rules regarding sales and purchase — like the definition of maximum retail price (MRP), for instance — and help them make an informed choice about products.

Officials told ET that the government is of the view that the campaign needs to be brought in sync with today’s needs for it to evoke interest. “The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) feels that the campaign is not being able to attract enough interest and needs to be refreshed to make the communication effective,” said a senior official who did not wish to be named.


Another official said the government plans to include a campaign that will cover e-commerce companies and other new-age consumer choices. “Plan could also include bringing a celebrity face to the campaign, which will help widen the campaign’s reach and also improve the campaign’s recall value,” the official said.

The revamp plan has found support from advertisement agencies, which feel that better advertisements will help achieve the campaign’s objectives.

“The campaign, even as on date, is good on content, but terrible on video quality, which is done very cheap. It could do much better with a better quality video and the reach would definitely increase,” said Prathap Suthan, managing partner at advertisement agency Bang-InTheMiddle.

He said the new campaign should also be good enough to attract enough traction on social media websites. “It is easier to get traction on these social networking websites, but the quality of the message being promoted should be high. People would not tweet or promote in any other way a message that is not of high quality,” Suthan said.