ITC Limited has launched three corporate films for their Sab Saath Badhein campaign, namely – ‘Paani Ki Lori’ (for watershed development), ‘Kal Ke Kisaan’ (for e-Choupal) and ‘Pedh Badhein Bacche Padhein’ (for afforestation). These series of short commercials, made by Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai, talk about ITC’s contribution as a company to national priorities like livelihood creation, doubling farm incomes and environmental replenishment.
The first film ‘Paani Ki Lori’ is about watershed development that shows little kids in a village putting their mothers to sleep. There’s a role reversal as the mothers go off to sleep peacefully with a smile on their faces. A beautifully written song explains that the mothers have been worried and sleepless when the land was dry. A voiceover says that after ITC installed water reservoirs in villages, dry lands started to yield crops for the farmers. The super provides us with a figure – over 11,000 watershed structures covering over 8,36,000 acres have been built by ITC. By building, reviving and maintaining water harvesting structures as well as implementing other measures that help to reverse land degradation, ITC provided critical irrigation and increased agricultural productivity.
The second film ‘Kal Ke Kisaan’ shows two little farmer boys at a farm bragging about whose father have better farming equipment and logistics. While one says that his father has a computer that can give information about where the cloud is and when it will rain, the other doesn’t stay quiet either. He says his father’s computer gives him information on every crop and how to yield different crops. The super says ITC has started 6,100 e-Choupal kiosks covering 35,000 villages in India. It helps 4 million farmers to yield crops the right way and sell them for the most competitive prices in the market. By connecting them to markets and enabling price discovery, ITC helps farmers in raising their farm incomes.
The third film called ‘Pedh Badhein Bacche Padhein’ talks about how schools attended by farmer’s kids remain empty if the land is barren. Under its Afforestation initiative, ITC planted trees across 6,62,000 acres and used them to manufacture copies and books for the kids in school. The super also adds that this programme has generated over 120 million person days of employment, among poor tribals, marginal farmers and farm workers.
The Sab Saath Badhein campaign helps ITC Company’s Triple Bottom Line philosophy of building economic, social and environmental capital for the nation, as is mentioned after each of the films. The films that have been shot at actual ITC locations show the on-ground initiatives that the company undertakes, through the children’s eyes. ITC is a diversified multi-crore company and it is only heartening to see them taking social initiatives for the betterment of the country.
Every company has some corporate social responsibility to fulfill and these CSR activities of ITC get properly reflected through this campaign. The films are short, made in real locations and explain the crux in detail with proper figures and data. They come to the point quickly and highlight the main points of the initiatives without making it boring or preachy. That thin line was important and it was maintained throughout. All big conglomerates should take a leaf out of ITC’s CSR book and do something similar for society’s betterment.
