Max Bupa Health Insurance and Vodafone get the great PR nod this week

 22nd October 2012    Good and Bad PR 

Great PR
 

Max Bupa Health Insurance walks away with good health
 

The thought of exercise can make most people break out into sweat and not in a good way. But Max Bupa Health Insurance has brought out an interesting campaign to get people moving by launching a walk for health campaign, which kicks off with a walkathon in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore on November 4^th.

The brand has also tied up with TV channel Times Now as their media partner which makes sure that they will get national coverage for their campaign; this is bound to strengthen in the run up to the walk.

Max Bupa; leveraged its advance coverage for the walk by tying in producer Anurag Kashyap and the cast of his upcoming film - Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana ( the film’s name is a nod to the stereotype of the hearty chicken eating Punjabi) - Kunal Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to speak about and commit to attending the walk in November.

The Max Bupa Facebook page extends the interaction of the community with the brand, by appealing to the emotional connect people have with Mahatma Gandhi and the way he used walks to make a political point. ”Help us to unjumble the iconic walk which brought us freedom, “says a post on the Max Bupa page with this very familiar view of Mahatma Gandhi walking.

As long as Max keeps this confined to simple Facebook jumbles, they can probably avoid the trouble that can often erupt over any use of Mahatma Gandhi for corporate PR. Case in point: the fracas over Mont Blanc, launching a 16,000 pound luxury pen with the images of the “famously acetic 'father of the nation' for commercial branding.”, as the Telegraph put it.

Overall this is a campaign that ties in PR around celebrities, social media and mainstream media well in the build up to the walkathon and manages to make walking look cool.

What do you think? How many of you prefer the Walk when you Talk campaign by Aircel?

Vodafone to speed up Delhi
 

This one is for the speed demons on the roads on Delhi! Come this Sunday (October 28^th 2012) and the DND Flyway to Noida, the venue of the second season of Formula 1 Racing in India will be toll free.

This will certainly win Vodafone some PR brownie points from those who have had the, erm, very special privilege of taking that lovely crowded route to work. Vodafone is the sponsor of the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One team that will ride through the national capital region in Delhi, and has come with this rather nice idea to help smooth the way to the F1 races.

They have kept the campaign low key and mostly confined to social media, where the ever so cute Vodafone Zoozoos, now in a bottle green caterpillar avatar, ask light questions that are not very likely to tax your brains.

Now if only the Zoozoos could wave their magic wand and make the flyways toll free on weekdays as well. That would be something.

Have you seen any great, or even bad, PR?
 

Contact Paarul Chand or tweet @PRmomentIndia throughout the week and we’ll happily credit you for your trouble.