Punjab Pardesh Congress Committee has chosen a unique
political advertising strategy featuring two male caricatures, Jeeta &
Jaggi, to communicate their messages to the citizen voters in the state. The
incumbent SAD-BJP alliance has used a far more traditional approach with
greater frequency to persuade the voters to bring them back into seat of power.
Both parties have gone for a 360 degree approach explained in terms of
integrated marketing communication to connect with various segments of voters
through various media across several territories.
Lets us scrutinize PPCC’s political advertising strategy
using interpretive textual analysis technique to study the effectiveness of the
current campaign.
The Happy- go- lucky image of Punjabis has been overplayed
time and again which is nothing but a stereotypical portrayal of hardworking
people of Punjab. Manmohan Singh’s image & suave behavior and portrayal of
Sikhs in Hindi cinema have changed the perception of Punjabis as manifested by boisterous
hyperbolic style of Navjot Singh Sidhu.
But the PPCC campaign depicts Sikhs as turban wearing lathi holding guy
who asks questions but never answers. This would certainly get a negative response
from the citizen voters. Moreover the color of the Sikh caricature resembles
that of traditional Akali robe whereas the clean-shaven guy wearing blue &
white has no resemblance to an average Punjabi Hindu. There is no female or
representation of various age segments such as youth in the message. Humour
sells but it is difficult to create saleable humour.
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