New govt will foot the bill for Modi govt’s advertising splurge

With the Lok Sabha polls weeks away, parties, led by BJP, have launched an aggressive media campaign before the model code of conduct kicks in.

An ad featuring PM Modi on a national daily | Manisha Mondal/ThePrint

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government is believed to have run up a tab of tens of crores for its last-minute advertisement push in newspapers, and its successor will end up paying the bill in all likelihood, top government sources claimed.

With the Lok Sabha election just weeks away, parties are mounting an aggressive media campaign before the model code of conduct kicks in — possibly this week — and bars all political ads for this poll season.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appears to have taken a lead in this race, with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) following close behind.

Information about the BJP-led central government’s total expenditure on ads is not in the public domain, but highly-placed government sources claimed the figure could be as high as Rs 100 crore for newspaper ads this February-March alone. The amount for ads on television and radio channels could have climbed to as much as Rs 200 crore, they claimed.

Senior officials said that for all the advertisements being issued now, the government was effectively committing funds from the next financial year’s budget.

It takes media outlets 45 days (after an ad’s publication) to submit the invoice, said an official, explaining the estimate. “So, the invoice with supporting documents will come in April. The account for this financial year will end on 31 March,” the official added.

“Whichever government comes to power,” said another government official, “it will be left with fewer funds for their advertisements and publicity.”

ThePrint reached director general of Bureau of Outreach & Communication, which releases central government advertisements, through calls and messages, as well as the I&B ministry spokesperson through email but is yet to receive a response. This report will be updated when they respond.

A regular feature

An analysis of the advertisements carried by two prominent national dailies — The Indian Express and The Times of India — shows that, just over the past week, 30-35 were issued by the Modi government and around 20 by the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government.

Full-page advertisements issued by different Union ministries — with big solo shots of Modi, and not the minister concerned — have become a regular feature in print media over the past two weeks, also finding their way onto select television channels.

ThePrint had reported Thursday that The Times of India, Hindustan Times and The Indian Express‘ editions of the day carried 10-12 official ads, largely full-page, featuring Modi and Kejriwal.

On Friday, the three papers carried 14-17 central government ads.

Friday’s Bengaluru edition of Deccan Herald, meanwhile, went viral as users pointed out that pages 4-13 of the paper were full-page ads of the central government.

Pages 4 to 13, from today's Deccan Herald. There is no doubt that BJP is India's richest political party. pic.twitter.com/FBkiqouxLN

— Karthik (@beastoftraal) March 7, 2019

The push extends to regional media as well, with the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran carrying 13 ads of the Modi government Friday, and Hindustan six.

ThePrint reported an analysis by the Indian Journalism Review, which found that there were “74 full-page advertisements in 3 English newspapers” — The Indian Express, The Times of India and Hindustan Times — “in just the first six days of March”.

Other English newspapers such as The Hindu and Business Standard have carried multiple advertisements, too, though far fewer in number.

‘Well-thought-out strategy’

This last-minute advertisement push is part of a well-thought-out strategy, said a senior official from the Information & Broadcasting Ministry, the nodal ministry for the Bureau of Outreach & Communication (BOC, earlier known as Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity).

“A higher number of repeat advertisements in a short period raises the recall value,” the official added. “Advertisements run as intensive campaigns.”

Saying that it was an unspoken rule to get every advertisement carrying Modi’s picture cleared by the Prime Minister’s Office, a ministry source said, “Almost all government advertisements have the PM’s picture. For quite a few months, the PMO did not clear any advertisements, leading to a shortage of ads for newspapers.

“Also, government advertisement rates for television were not attractive enough for the channels, so many of them decided against running these ads,” the official added.

Then, this January, the Modi government hiked the advertisement rates for private channels and print media by 11 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively. So, publications are earning a tidy sum from this political advertising bonanza.

“These advertisements are aimed at buying the goodwill of the media before elections, at no immediate expense to the current administration,” the official said.

An official who was formerly with the ministry, however, said this ad spree towards the end of a government’s term was nothing new.

“Even the Congress had done the same thing with its Bharat Nirman campaign,” the official added.

Communication consultant Dilip Cherian told ThePrint that ad splurges were common before every state or general election, but acknowledged that the push seemed stronger this poll season.

“The idea is to curry favour with the media to influence election coverage. It goes beyond paid advertisements,” he added. “However, the number of ads we are seeing before this election are probably four times what we have seen earlier.”