The Hindu takes on “dumbing down” with new campaign

The Hindu, after a long silence has decided to take competitors heads on with its new campaign 'stay ahead with the Hindu.' Featuring responses from readers of competitors newspapers, the campaign use its brand's heritage and credibility to highlight the present state of Indian journalism. Interestingly, this is the first time that the publication has embareked on a large 360 degree campaign spread across TV, radio, print, outdoor, digital, and on ground activities.

The point is that it is observed that newspapers and the broadcast channels often dumb down hardcore stories replacing it by the soft news stories. But The Hindu, an English daily broadsheet came up with this extraordinary act of campaign. It placed unusual ads stating that ‘Also has 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, pages’ and ‘For Current Affairs that go beyond Bollywood Affairs.’

          The responses from general people for questions ranging from politics to sports and music, and while they seem to be getting all the answers wrong, all of them give the right answers for questions related to Bollywood. The last question posed to all the respondents is about the newspaper they read. However, the responses for this question are beeped out. The film ends with the line ‘Stay ahead of the times’.

          The Hindu believed that in a more than ever globalising knowledge-driven economy, it is vital that readers are well informed about the world at large. And yet, over the last few years, news from the media industry in India has increasingly focused on serving up a steady diet of trivia and shied away from the national and international issues that matter. It is the kind of news that equates to junk food. In the long term, it is a steady dumbing down of readers who end up knowing about a celebrity’s kid than about serious stuff that truly matters. 

          This campaign not helped The Hindu in promoting more in order to beat against its competitors but also it helped in giving a clear cut idea that the time has come to hold up a mirror to the new trend in Indian journalism, which is really dumbing down the society at large. Here The Hindu acted as the only media institution that has the heritage and credibility to raise this issue.

          The thing that has happened is that most of the people are steeped into the ‘Page 3’ culture and in this knowledge driven economy it is important that people are well versed with relevant current affairs and world events rather than just gossip