The inspiring backstory behind the GP-Tahsan Ad
ইন্টারনেটের দুনিয়ায় জানতে হবে
কোথায় আপনার থামতে হবে!
A COUNTER-INTUITIVE IDEA!
It was going out of control.
The misuse of the internet – sharing consents that destroy privacy and life, killing the precious little time we can spend with our family members, without ever considering the dire consequences.
As a mobile network provider, no way a Telco can preach people to be careful in the internet use! It may be counterproductive for the business.
Or maybe not??
Someone within Grameenphone thought it was their responsibility to create this awareness. When it’s hurting the society, someone needs to tell – STOP!
And this is where all it starts.
Thanks to Sabbir Ahmed vai, Head of Corporate Brand & Social Media, Grameenphone and Ishraq Dhaly vai, Director, Accounts & Servicing at Magnito Digital, for helping to get the full story about how the idea came live.
THE TIMING – AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF STORYTELLING
The idea of this awareness ad was formed and approved from GP board around September 2019.
The team chooses GP Brand Ambassador Tahsan Khan, not only because of his celebrity value, but also because he is an academic, and thus a right fit to evangelize safe internet use.
Tahsan vai always proactively participate in this kind of social campaigns and hearing the idea he immediately gave consent to perform in the ad. But since he was in the USA that time, it took a few weeks to get his schedule. When he was back to the country, the full shooting was done in September with the help of Magnito Digital.
THEN IT ALL CHANGED!
In early November, when GP was just about to release the ad, something went very wrong. An unfortunate event happened, and some very private pictures of Mithila went viral. It created such an uproar and wave of criticism around the social media platforms, GP had to review their initial plan.
There were two options:
One – Release the video in the heat of the moment, get more visibility and virility.
Two – Stay back. Hold on until the situation is at ease.
The GP team didn’t want to capitalize an unfortunate event. They considered it was not ethically right to publish the video featuring Tahsan at that moment. So they decided not to release it until the wave got subdued.
WITH THE POWER OF INTERNET, COMES RESPONSIBILITY
There were 5 different scenarios shown in the Ad. Each presented a practical example of what we face everyday in our hyper-connected digital life.
Privacy matters. Family matters. Life matters.
The responsibility of using the internet properly lies with you.
This is the message the campaign wanted to spread.
Though the initial idea and shooting was completely done before the photo leaking event, streams of similar events prove that it was the right time showing us putting a finger directly at the eyes. It’s time we take a look at what we are doing with unlimited internet access. So GP released it finally.
And the rest is history!
Kudos again to the GP team and Magnito Digital again to saying it loud and clear. Special thanks to Sabbir vai for sharing the story.
And lots of love to the Brand practitioners of Bangladesh. I never intended to write the backstory, but due to your incredible response I tried to dig down a bit more.
Let’s build a responsible society together!
