Advertising Lessons from the 2004 General Election Victory

20 years ago, the Congress Party took a drubbing in 3 state elections. The ‘India Shining’ slogan of the NDA government had taken everyone by storm. Buoyed by their momentum, the ruling party decided to prepone General Elections by eight months. Yet in May 2004, the ultimate story was one of an absolute surprise. The Congress won the elections. In this episode, Carl Jaison speaks to Jayshree M Sundar, author of the book – ‘Don’t Forget 2004’ & who headed the agency that executed the marketing and advertising campaigns which dovetailed into the political strategy for the Congress party, bringing it back to power after a 9 year hiatus. In a very illustrious career, Jayshree Sundar has worked with clients like Cadbury, Maruti Suzuki, Gillette, Parker, Xerox among many others. During the period when she oversaw the agency pitch that won the rights to execute the advertising campaign of the Congress party, Jayshree was President (North region) of Leo Burnett. Currently, she teaches marketing courses at business schools all over India.