Aircel urges youngsters to donate spare mobile phones

Aircel has come up with a marketing campaign that asks people to donate spare mobile phones for the benefit of senior citizens in old age homes.

The telecom player’s creative agency Dentsu Marcom has created two TVCs in addition to print, poster and web (www.aircelsilence.com). Dentsu says the campaign is primarily targeted at the youth "considering they frequently change their phones".

Aircel has tied up with Help Age India for this initiative and will be collecting these phones from 25th December to 3rd January in special drop boxes placed in malls and all Aircel outlets. The phones are picked up free of cost if viewers SMS to a toll free number that is flashed at the end of the TVCs.

Speaking about the campaign, Adrian Mendonza, national creative director, Dentsu Marcom said, “We thought of the initiative because mobile phones are mostly seen as a youth device today, full of gaming, gadgetry and networking. So we felt, what if we take this young people's device and turn it on it's head? What if we cajole young people to think of the lonely and old, by donating their phones, so that these old forgotten people can reach out and communicate? What if we fill the lonely with love?

Mendonza added that the timing to kickstart the initiative was specially chosen as Christmas day and it will run across the New Year. “This is the time when all youngsters are partying, socialising and having fun. But at the same time, this is when the inmates of old age homes feel the loneliness even more. We wanted youngsters to think of these people in the middle of all their partying. We felt we could touch youngsters more by bringing into sharp focus the lonliness of the aged, in the middle of all their festivities,” he said.

Watch TVCs here

Credits:

Creative Agency: Dentsu Marcom
National creative director/ECD: Adrian Mendonza
Copywriter: Adrian Mendonza
Art Director: Vivek Shinde, R. V. Krishna
Account Planning:Sandeep Goyal
Production House: Orchid Land Films
Director of the film: Adrian Mendonza
Post production studio: Prime Focus Plus
Media: TV, print, outdoor, ambient, web
Media Agency: Dentsu Media