It takes a brave agency and a braver client to confront its national culture.
I have a lot of respect for Taproot India and this ad they’ve done for the local Mumbai paper, the Mumbai Mirror.
They’ve taken news stories showing scandals and given them a voice. Then they made this relevant, and emotional, by representing the impact it has on real people.
Each speaker concludes with the anguished claim “I am Mumbai.”
It leaves no doubt that looking away, ignoring the issues or standing back is not an option. It concludes with the line “Mumbai speaks every morning, are you listening?”
The product shot fits perfectly into the ad, no jolt of glamour, just the same grittiness showing their paper clutched in a hand, leading you to believe they are the voice of the people.