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SOFII’s
view
Though not a fundraiser by profession, copywriter and author
Indra Sinha has created some of the most effective and moving advertising
campaigns of all time, not just because he’s a great writer but also because he
cares passionately about the cause and he’s not afraid to let that passion
show.
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Name of
exhibitor: Indra Sinha.
Email: N/A.
Name of
exhibit: The Bhopal Medical Appeal, press
advertisements.
Date of first appearance: 2002 –
2007.
Category/area of fundraising: Press advertising
‘off-the page’.
Countries
of origin: India and UK.
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'Thousands died in the most hideous
ways. As the sun rose on streets full of corpses, Raghu found himself in a stony
graveyard where a man was burying his young daughter. The father had covered the
tiny body but then, unable to bear parting from her, brushed the earth away for
one last look.'
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This image
has become the symbol of a crime that, more than 23 years later, still inflicts
unimaginable suffering and still goes unpunished. The Bhopal Medical Appeal
campaigns to change this, through its fundraising.
Summary/objectives: These eight advertisements
are the latest examples of a campaign created to raise money to found and run a
free clinic in Bhopal, India, for victims of the 1984 Union Carbide gas
disaster. Today, almost 23 years after the gas leak, more than 100,000 people
are still chronically ill in the city, while tens of thousands more are drinking
water poisoned by chemicals leaking from the abandoned factory. Opened in 1996,
the clinic has so far provided free medical care to around 30,000 people.
Combining the best of modern medicine with traditional Indian herbal treatments
and yoga, it has pioneered new drug free treatments for asthma, diabetes and
menstrual problems. In 2002 the clinic won the Margaret Mead award, given to
small groups who make a big difference in the world. The advertisements are
crucial to the success of the clinic, which depends directly on funds raised
off-the-page and on income from newsletters to donors recruited by the
advertisements.
Background: The Bhopal Medical Appeal
is not just about ‘us’ asking ‘you’ to help ‘them’. To us, fundraising is about
all of us together, working to oppose injustice, save lives and ease suffering.
These advertisements carry the authentic voice of the Bhopal survivors, allowing
us to share directly the indomitable spirit with which they have turned their
suffering into struggle, charity and art. We don’t just ask, we also give
something back. The Bhopal survivors are among the poorest people in the world,
but they return to the rest of us a priceless gift – the knowledge, painfully
gained in the living laboratories of their bodies, of how to treat
industrially-caused diseases.
That
night…
December 3rd, 1984. Shortly after midnight, 27 tonnes of a
gas 500 times more deadly than cyanide leaked from Union Carbide’s factory in
Bhopal, India. There was no warning, none of the plant's safety systems were
working. In the city people were sleeping. They woke in darkness to the sound of
screaming, with gas already in their eyes, noses and mouths. They began retching
and coughing up froth streaked with blood. Whole neighbourhoods fled in panic,
some were trampled, others convulsed and fell dead. People lost control of their
bowels and bladders as they ran. Within hours thousands of dead bodies lay in
the streets.
More than 23 years later, upwards of 100,000 people are
still seriously ill. The drinking water of a further 20,000 has been poisoned by
chemicals leaking from the abandoned plant. Ignoring ‘polluter pays’ laws, Union
Carbide and its owner Dow Chemical have refused to pay for a
clean-up.
Creator/originator: Indra
Sinha.
Special characteristics: Whole page
advertisements using long copy, very detailed editorial style ads focusing on
the dramatic, devastating effects of the disaster and its aftermath on the lives
of real people.
Influence/impact: These ads were based
on the style Indra Sinha had used very successfully some years earlier, for
Amnesty International UK branch.
Test details: All media
responses are carefully monitored and ROIs
calculated.
Costs: Roughly £16K per round of advertising
in The Guardian, The Times and The Independent with
each ad running once in each publication.
Results: ROI
varied between 1.5:1 and 4:1 (average response has produced 150-400% of media
and production costs).
Why do you think this exhibit merits a
place in SOFII?:
In breaking most of the established rules of direct
response fundraising, these ads also break most records for response. Listen now
to Indra Sinha, creator and writer of all of the Bhopal advertisements, as he
explains why this great campaign succeeded and still continues to raise funds
cost-effectively for the people of Bhopal.
Any other relevant
information: The Bhopal Medical Appeal began in Britain as a joint
effort of ordinary individuals working with the Bhopal survivors to bring free
medical relief to the victims of the gas and water disasters. It now has
supporters across the world. At the Sambhavna Clinic in Bhopal all
consultations, treatments, therapies and medicines are completely free. The
Appeal has given medical care to around 30,000 people. The Bhopal Medical Appeal
is affiliated to the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, which seeks
to obtain legal redress for the continuing suffering of the survivors. The
creator of this campaign has also written for the ICJB. See http://www.indrasinha.com/masks.html.
He is also a novelist whose latest novel, ‘Animal’s People’, set in a fictional
Indian city that had suffered a Bhopal-like disaster, was short-listed for the
2007 Booker Prize.
