Looks like communication is undergoing a sea-change in the digital era! Rather than staid and complicated sentences, Governments are now turning to filmy memes on social media to create awareness about their products and services. And boy, it’s paying off!
IPS officer and erstwhile Cyberabad Police Commissioner V.C. Sajjanar was recently appointed Managing Director of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC). In a bid to attract public attention and revive RTC’s past glory, he has been using memes based on cinema on his Twitter handle.
He has been using popular dialogues from a range of stars, including Pawan Kalyan, Mahesh Babu and Venkatesh, as memes and pegging them to various concepts like rising fuel costs and how RTC is the safest mode of travel. And the memes have caught the imagination of the people.
V C Sajjanar has been promoting RTC using filmy memes
Memes have greater penetration
Whose idea was this, we ask Sajjanar. He replies that during his earlier stint as Cyberabad Police Commissioner he had used this technique. “In my earlier assignment we used filmy memes and references to create awareness among the public on issues like wearing seat belts and helmets, following rules, etc. It had a great impact, so I am just following that trend in my new role,’ he says.
Sajjanar adds that he has been using only iconic and popular dialogues so that people can easily remember the memes. These creative posts are leaving many in splits.
“The objective is to encourage people to use RTC and slowly increase the footfalls. I believe social media has great penetration among the youth and filmy memes will help us persuade the masses to use public transport,” he says, adding, “I myself am using RTC transport and now my subordinates and other officers are also emulating me.” The public response to the initiative has been great, shares Sajjanar. “You can see the likes, re-tweets, and shares for filmy memes; it’s been superb,” he says and reveals that buoyed by the response, he is all set to redouble his efforts.
Another filmy meme from Seethamma Vaakitlo Sirimalle Chettu
Communicating the filmy way
Earlier too, there have been instances of State Governments using filmy memes and references from popular culture to convey socially relevant messages. Be they on Instagram or Twitter, filmy posts have been getting a lot of love from netizens.
Recently Pune City Police used a very popular meme based on a scene from the 2012 film Gangs of Wasseypur to raise awareness about online scams. They used the memorable Chaabi kahan hai? (Where is the key?) line from the Manoj Bajpayee film to warn people not to fall for unverified listings on websites.
Pune police isn't far behind when it comes to filmy memes
The Mumbai Police used Rajesh Khanna’s iconic dialogue from Amar Prem to urge people to order food delivered at home and not venture out during the pandemic. In the 1972 romantic drama, Khanna had said ‘Pushpa, I hate tears’, and the cops gave that a twist — “Pushpa, we hate rule-breakers! Stay home Rey…” they said. The emergency management system in Uttar Pradesh, Call 112, used the popular character Kaleen Bhaiya, portrayed by Bollywood actor Pankaj Tripathi in the movie Mirzapur, to communicate that their services are available round the clock.
Mumbai Police used Rajesh Khanna's meme from the film Amar Prem telling people to stay indoors during the pandemic
In response to a plea for help on the 112 service, the meme uses Bhaiya’s famous dialogue – ‘I’ll arrange something, don’t worry’, and the campaign became a rage. Akhilesh Vardhan, Digital Marketing Expert, says options on the digital platform are on par with traditional mediums of advertising. With almost no cost and being highly effective, he foresees that all the government agencies will soon use on the ‘filmy meme culture’ to communicate with the audience.
Brand recall value
According to social media expert and PR strategist Anoop Mishra, filmy memes have more recall value and engagement levels. He explains that people are attracted by things they don’t usually see. As such, government agencies leveraging humour and social media to drive home a point is effective.
“Since we are living in a digital era, memes are the new ways of reaching out to the masses. People follow and remember the iconic characters and dialogues from films. So the government is using memes as a tool to push their services and grab public attention, which I think is a very smart move,” Anoop comments.
However, he warns, “As much as we enjoy the pun game, there’s a possibility of backlash too if the humour goes wrong.” He also raises the possibility of copyright issues, and says Governments are free to use memes as long as there are no such problems.
Rajive Dhavan, founder of a digital marketing agency, shares that the core brand communication will have a greater impact if the message (filmy meme) is already established.
