To inculcate a new behavourial change, the Lagos State government has adopted a new communication approach, tagged Spirit of Lagos, to enhance discipline among residents.
The advert comes under various names to tackle the defacement of public properties, undermining of environmental sanitation and neglect of pedestrian bridges.
Titled: Do The Right Thing – and a-call-to-action body copy: Change Your Thinking, the advert, according to experts, conforms with creative principles as it raises serious issues which the the government is bent on tackling.
Adapted for various media – TV, radio and press as well as social media – and described by communication professionals as a social- cause advert, the Spirit of Lagos explores various lifestyles of Lagosians and their attitudes towards their environment.
One of the adverts is targeted at passengers onboard a public bus. The 30-second TV version, which frowns at scribbling in public buses, three teenagers sketch an image of an old man sitting on the last roll of a BRT bus. The old man becomes an artistic object to the teenagers as a result of his white mustache, spectacle, white trilby-style hat, brown French suit clad on a white shirt and black tie. With a green marker pen, the teenager sketches the old man using the bus seat as the drawing board.
As the bus stops over, a young woman of the same age group with the teenagers boards the bus, walks majestically with a charming smile towards the boys and cleans the sketches. Warning the male characters to desist from such an act with gesture, a background music fades in with a male voice over warns: “Do not deface public property, Do the Right Thing, Let’s change the way we think.”
As a pay off, the logo of the TV advert campaign Spirit of Lagos, Restore, Share and Protect signs off the commercial.
One of the striking features of the advert is the way it communicates how the residents filled the gutters with dirt and risks their lives in crossing highways instead of using pedestrian bridges. This version of the Spirit of Lagos advert theme personifies conscience using an image of an errant resident. The copy shows a young man trying to cross the highway but his conscience which comes to him as his own image taps him from the back and asks him to use the pedestrian bridge just as a woman who dumps refuse on the ground is asked by her image to make use of the government street refuse bin.
The TV version of the market setting theme shows a woman sweeping the dirt from her shops into the gutter, but her image which symbolises her conscience warns her to desist and offer her a refuse bin.
Beyond the creative brilliance of the advert, the campaign is premised on four cardinal points. It addresses civic responsibility to make residents understand that they have a part to play in developing and sustaining the communities and public services.
It also x-rays citizens wanting to contribute to the society while displaying the right actions and attitudes associated with environmental sanitation or quality of life issues.
A creative expert, Mr. Yemi Kushimo, said the public service advert is a departure from the old ways which do not apply creativity in grabbing the attention of citizens to civic responsibility. He said personification of conscience as a creative strategy to enhance behavourial change underscore the creative spark in the Spirit of Lagos advert.
According to Kushimo, the use of public service advert is very effective in making citizens responsible. “The advertising techniques used to promote commercial goods and services can be used to inform, educate and motivate the public about non-commercial issues, such as HIV/AIDS, political ideology, energy conservation and deforestation, environmental issue among others.
He noted that public service advertising, non-commercial advertising, public interest advertising, cause marketing, and social marketing are different terms for sophisticated advertising and marketing communications techniques (generally associated with commercial enterprise) for non-commercial, public interest issues and initiatives.
