Boris Becker stayed on the Indian horizons in the last months with a charity perform-anre in the tennis court with Kapil Dev and Indian star Aamir Khan. It is not very often that one sees the media celebrities make any goodwill gestures. The enduring images beyond their performing arenas are those projected through advertisements pushing one or the other product, mostly unworthy of their star status. Considering the kind of influence they exert on the popular imagination, it is sometimes quite puzzling to see them blatantly promote alcohol, ;lobacco or several types of junk foods, including .the soft drinks range.

To be fair, one does see occasional social advertising when some of them have mouthed AIDS awareness slogans or called for eye donations. But this is quite rare. When the Salman Khan fiasco with the Black Bucks had hit the headlines, one often heard remarks, specially from the young, that a mandatory fine should be imposed on the vstar to support wild life projects and he should be asked to take a few courses for raising his environmental awareness.

Being in the business of information dissemination for raising consumer, environmental and even social awareness, we at VOICE have often wondered whether a special project should be designed to raise the general awareness level of the mega stars and enlist them into giving part of their time and financial resources in support of good causes, as a part of their social responsibility. Maybe if they were sensitised they would be more than willing to use their crowd pulling presence to give out supportive messages for good causes.

Television programmes are increasingly being constructed around commercials. Like 'advertorials' in the print media, the 'informercials' on TV are beginning to blur boundaries between the factual and the advertised range of information. "Knowing that consumers view ads with scepticism marketers sneak through our defences by blurring the lines between advertising, news and entertainment."
The reach of the visual media is such that any slogan mouthed by people with a large following is likely to get more mileage than any long-winded exhortations. To make social advertising work, some kind of policy decision will have to be taken by the government to mandate some percentage of advertising time and money into it. Actually the government TV channels- the Doordarshan range do script in social messages, but to get other stakeholders like the MNCs and the stars to come to an agreement with the commercial channels is what is required. It is quite obvious that it is possible to sell anything if the right strategies are adopted. Therefore the powers that be, should put their heads together to chalk out a plan to build in social ads into prime-time slots, specially those targeting children and the rural masses. If some percentage of the ad funds was committed to select cause promotion, it would surely work. Sports and movies stars with planned families could be asked to give out family planning messages. Female stars could come forward for messages for women. Another approach could be to make some funds available to the concerned NGOs and allot them time slots to push in messages.
One has seen messages from well heeled organisations like the WWF, UNICEF, WHO, etc., using celebrities to promote their causes. They even appoint these personalities as their goodwill ambassadors. All this, however involves sponsor-ships and funds. Consumer organisations like VOICE have a commitment not to accept funds from the industry for any of our work. The government or any charity foundation is the only hope. We have a good cause, we can make it fun but where is the money to materialise these ambitions. Any takers?