Advertisements on Autos and taxis in Delhi – Is it too much of visual noise?

11

People of Delhi handed Sheila Dikshit a third straight victory in the capital. Without wasting any time and without losing the good work she was doing, Madam Chief Minister is implementing one more ingenious idea. Allow advertising on Autos and taxis and share revenue. This should bring in 300 crore additional revenues for the next fiscal.

Sheila Dikshit of Delhi, Narendra Modi of Gujarat are definitely one of the finer Chief Ministers India ever had. Why don’t we have a equally dynamic Prime Minister? Well, don’t bother to answer. That is not the discussion I want to drive here anyway.

There is a start-up called CashUrDrive which pays for the fuel for carrying advertisements on your personal car. There are few conditions like the car should travel for 20 odd kilometers a day. This service is available in select cities. People are already earning their fuel expense by lending their valuable real estate. I wanted to do this but this service is not yet available in Bangalore and I don’t travel that much.

This is a good idea for private vehicles. Not all private vehicles will let their car look like a Formula one car. But some would do. That itself is self-regulatory. Extending this for Autos and taxis as a government regulation would be a totally different story.

Allowing taxis and autos for advertising – sure – will earn revenues. We already have buses – the red volvo kind in Bangalore displaying advertisements. And they are generating revenues. But the question is – Is it too much of visual noise? There are billboards, there are smaller advertisement boards on the divider, there are advertisements on the traffic signals too.

Do we need so many advertising platforms for our heavily undisciplined Indian drivers? Indian drivers have an attention span of a 2 year old.

And most importantly isn’t it too much for Indian drivers who have a lot of things to take care of while driving?

There is a chicken and egg kind of a problem here. Advertisers would ask the drivers not to look at the advertisements if it is too much of a visual noise. Drivers would ask the advertisers, why do you need the advertisements if  you don’t want us to look at them. Very fair questions on both sides and I don’t have any answers to either.

I am fine with the visual noise but, don’t include Priyanka Chopra or Katrina Kaif. That would be too distracting for me.

What do you think about the visual noise?

11 Comments
  1. ASHOK ARORA says

    Dear Sir

    we want to do some advertising on the back of AUTO’s in DELHI and kindly let us know as to whom we can the the and address of their unoins, etc.

    ASHOK ARORA
    9810284657

  2. Peeyush Bhardwaj says

    Dear, i don’t know why people are appraising this ideas.When this idea is already stopped in developed countries. Initially it boomed and then due to increased accidents it has to face the heat of government.We are already bombarded with no. of advertisement on our email account mobile and TV and PC. ans so on.Isn’t it enough to distract already distracted minds.Isn’t it the no. of accidents are enough or we still can afford more accidents with this VISUAL NOISE…….

  3. Raghu Khanna says

    Hi All,

    Thanks for your suggestions and support..

    I personally belief these advertisement will be entertaining while you wait at traffic lights (That is how I got this idea , few truck with funny poster surrounding my car during a traffic jam :) )

    Please feel free to write to us [email protected] and help us make CASHurDRIVE a grand success.

    Raghu Khanna
    Founder and CEO, CASHurDRIVE

  4. shweta says

    even i agree to this .there is nothing bad in advertising through displaying on the taxis and autos as it has a great visual appeal and it will surely raise the revenue of the government.after all the advertisers also need to come up with something differnt which has a huge amount of impact on the public.

  5. priyanka says

    Well I guess an ad banner ON an auto or taxi is not as bad as having an Aaj Tak video being played on TWO screens IN the BEST bus you are traveling in Mumbai, which is being done!

  6. Jagannath A says

    ‘Subliminal Advertising’

    you don’t even need to consciously look the ad :o ;)

  7. Ankit says

    I almost thought it was me with the first comment.And i was seriously surprised,cos i again did not get this post in my email.I am not sure why my email id is being cornered:-(

    Anywas,coming to the article,it sure is a chicken and egg issue.But then,with the market place getting as competitve as it is getting.the advertisers have to target whteva they can.
    But yes,some sort of balance has to be struck where it does not take away the total concentration of the commuters.
    May be as piyush mentions,a regultory body is needed who can anaylse as to wht extent the advertisements can be glorified without affecting the oh-so-small concentration of the commuters:-)
    Katrina sure will get people killed.lol

  8. Rahi says

    wowwwww. i would love to share my petrol bills wid the advertsing company. and it will also help to hide the scratches. waiting to b launched in delhi.

  9. Piyush Gupta says

    You are the second person I have found who has shown any sort of worry about the visual noise. Till date I thought as if I’m the only fool around :)

    While I personally am not against this way of marketing but having experienced distractions and escaping accidents, this is one of the worst idea that can come to life for Indians.

    No idea, if there’s any body that actually studies/ regulates the amount of advertisement that should happen within a particular radius for the normal eye visibility?

  10. Ravi Bhushan says

    I am based out of Singapore, and one of the most successful media companies here – Moove Media does just this. Its a great means to earn revenue – what Ms. Dixit could do however, is take down billboard because they definitely add to the visual pollution.

  11. Ankit says

    Amazing creativity in a way . The only issue is the target segment of such product advertisements may be ppl who travel during those working hours .

Reply To Jagannath A
Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published.

who's online