‘The subject is delicate, but needed to be tackled’

Sam Balsara

Mumbai: Sam Balsara, Chairman and Managing Director of Madison Worldwide, spearheaded the creation of the campaign with his core team, including daughter Lara Balsara Vajifdar, Executive Director at Madison World. Mr. Balsara and his team also worked on the earlier Jiyo Parsi campaign. He says that the agency researched deeply and met several Parsis before finaliing the 12-ad campaign. Mr Balsara spoke to The Hindu about the campaign and the kerfuffle.

Many people feel that the ads are regressive and not in a good taste…

This is a campaign with a narrow and single minded purpose of motivating young Parsi adults to get married and have children. But there are people who want to use the Jiyo Parsi platform to further their own agenda about intermarriage, entry to religious places, etcetera. These are not issues for Jiyo Parsi to look at.

Do you feel that what you are endorsing is fair?

We genuinely believe that what we are recommending is good for young Parsi adults and specially as they get on in age. We are not saying, put yourself through hardships and inconvenience for your community. We genuinely believe that to live a fulfilling life, it is good to have a family and in later life a support system, which is missing today in many Parsi lives. Obviously the subject is delicate but needed to be tackled.

I have used my professional skills for the benefit of my community and we have used real Parsi people instead of models and featured them in their real-life situations.

Was the campaign designed to be controversial?

We have designed the campaign keeping everything — the task in hand as well as the sensibilities — in mind. Phase Two of the campaign is a little more hard hitting and direct. We talk about advantages of marriage and having babies and the likely consequences for those who don’t get married and don’t have children. All the 12 advertisements feature one of these two situations. When we launched phase one, there were similar objections raised by a handful of people. But I hope all Parsis are agreed on at least one objective: that the community must live and it’s a good thing to have a family.