MUMBAI: Every Independence Day, a number of brands come out with campaigns that are targeted at celebrating the freedom that we have or to salute those who helped us attain this freedom. And every year, a campaign or two stands out with a slight shift in the narrative that makes people think and act to preserve this freedom.

This year, it is Liberty Shoes’ ‘In the Name of Liberty’ that is creating the buzz. The campaign is being loved by everyone because of its simple yet hard-hitting narrative. The video covers day-to-day scenarios of our freedom being misused by us trough acts like littering, using racial slangs, and being uncompassionate to make a very important point. The team behind this great campaign, which is running across digital channels and in PVR cinemas, recently interacted with Indiantelevision.com to share what went behind in the creation of this gem.

Liberty Shoes marketing head Barun Prabhakar shared that he started conceptualising this video a few months back, in May, with the simple thought that do we respect the freedom that we have or not.

He said, “We people are privileged as we are born free. And we really don’t care about how difficult it would have been for people who were living in an era when they were struggling to get even a single thing done. We have taken our freedom for granted. We have a liberty to choose and liberty to reject, but the biggest problem in the country is that we restrict it to just ourselves. We don’t think what our liberty for expression can cultivate in society.”

Prabhakar shared that when he was developing this concept, he wasn’t sure if he will be taking it to such a big platform or not as it could have appeared as a political campaign to a few, thus suppressing what it actually stood for.

“When I started conceptualising this thought, there were several more chapters to it. I will not like taking any names but the murder of a certain journalist in Bengaluru and the lynching of a certain individual in a village in Noida, were some of the events that were a part of the narrative. But when you make a two-minute long video and put such episodes in it, it can start appearing as a political campaign to a few,” he said.

Prabhakar continued, “But now, if you look at this video, there are certain incidents that we have portrayed which might appear smaller than the instances removed but are equally important. For example, the first sequence shows a man urinating on the road. It might seem like a small thing, but it has a big impact on us as a society, on our upbringing, and on our learning. When you start watching this video, it might appear as a comic sequence but if you continue to travel with it, you will realise what this actually stands for.”

He noted that it took immense efforts of the whole team to come out with the final product. “I was looking after the concept and ideation, we had Flamingo Digital on board for execution and the Indian Ocean was working with us for the music. They created a number of tracks, which were reworked on for over a month to come with the final tune that we have.”

He added, “Also, Piyush Mishra was my first choice for narration. He was in my head even when I had started conceptualising. It took a few calls for him to come on board.”

There was a 20-25 member team from Flamingo Digital working on the execution of the project as shared by Prabhakar.  

Flamingo Digital Pvt Ltd CEO & co-founder Dev Batra and NCD & co-founder Yeshwant Miranda said, “The work is not the effort of one single individual or a handful of them. There are countless who have worked behind the scenes to make it successful and we are thankful to everyone who made it possible.”

Speaking about the process that they undertook to deliver the final ad, Batra and Miranda shared, “Barun, wanted an idea that can create buzz, at the same time tread a bold path, so that the brand can stand out. We looked at several insights and decided to do negative narration as a means to grab the audience's attention. Hence we decided what if we turn the lyrics of 'Saare Jahan Sey Accha' on its head, in a modern scenario. Once we knew where we're heading, Nishant our copywriter, got down to identify things in society that, we take for granted in the name of freedom. However, the process to identify the right was co-created with Barun's feedback and inputs”

The whole team is proud of the response that the campaign is getting online. Prabhakar shared that he was not aware that the campaign will create such wonders while working on it. “I knew that this will go a long way and might attract some criticism too but I was prepared for that.”

Batra and Miranda added, “As an agency and as a brand, if we are able to drive some goodness into people's way of thinking and changing behaviour for the same, it makes us feel, we are in a far responsible place than just propagate consumerism.”