Tata Trusts puts the spotlight on the life of sanitation workers...

In a bid to inspire citizens to adopt improved waste management practices, Tata Trusts, through its 'Mission Garima' initiative, has launched a new campaign titled #TwoBinsLifeWins.

The campaign aims to instill a sense of responsibility among people, regarding waste management, and how they perceive professions that relate to civic matters. Featuring a dedicated film, the campaign highlights the prevalent mismanagement and disordered spillage of human waste, while showcasing how it affects the lives of conservancy workers.

The campaign film depicts a story between father and son, detailing how the child takes pride in what his father does. Equating it with 'running the country', the son narrates to the audience how his father’s work builds the fabric of our society. The campaign has been crafted by FCB Ulka and has already gone live across digital platforms.

Speaking on the inception of the campaign and the research that went into it, Deepshika, head, Brand and Marketing Communications, Tata Trusts, says, “We first did a research on men and women, working or non-working, and the youth. We found that people want to participate in such campaigns, usually to make a difference to how they live. And the peg of the campaign – segregation of waste, helps them contribute to society.”

She adds, “From there, the research then transitioned into finding out the barriers, the triggers to sewer mismanagement, who does the segregation, what happens in their lives, and what could be done to improve the system.”

Speaking on the execution of the campaign, Keegan Pinto, national creative director, FCB Ulka, says, “The idea was to do it for the children, and the people depicted in the campaign. The campaign was done for the cause, and so you can find the film moving, but it doesn’t choose to be too clever, or lateral and sideways.”

He adds, “The project was to genuinely evoke a sense of pride within these workers. The state in which conservancy workers live is saddening. And yet, the work they do for society is so important that without it, society would collapse.”

How was the film crafted, we asked. Pinto responds, “It was all shot in natural light. We went into Dharavi to shoot the slum sequences. It was a struggle to find a proper boy for the film. And he nailed the job with perfect lines.”

The ad film showcases the father entering a gutter for segregation. We asked Pinto if the location was real. He answers, “The gutter wasn’t real, it was created. A great production design job.”

Expert Review:

Sunila Karir, owner and creative partner, Boing!

Very few people have tackled the issue of sanitation workers and I think that there was no better brand than the Tata group, to think of this issue which is so relevant and yet, completely ignored by all of us. They have hit the ball out of the park with this campaign, a group that is renowned for walking their talk. Using the child of the sanitation worker as a mouthpiece, is a brilliant idea. It has evoked a lot of sympathy for the plight of these underground workers.

Firstly, this campaign is different because very few brands have touched upon the issue. We are never empathetic about issues which do not affect us directly. But this campaign has cleverly told us that our actions can affect those who we never see, but cannot do without. And also, how a simple change on our part can make a huge difference to their lives. This is the beauty of this campaign. Hats off to the brand as well as the team which has conceptualised this film.