What ‘Vote Chori’ and Tata Tea’s ‘Jaago Re’ teach comms teams about 'Slogans-as-Strategy'

Slogans are a brilliant shorthand for a campaign. From Pepsi's iconic "Yeh Dil Maange More" to the latest "Vote Chori", they give people an easily understood message with high recall.

A slogan makes people remember you. But without a plan underneath, a slogan either fades or your opponent turns it against you.

Here we look at three political slogans and two brand slogans, and what each one teaches comms teams.

( AI has been used to generate the grafix in this story under a human editor's supervision. Credible sources are provided for each case study)

1. Garibi Hatao (1971): back the line with action

In 1971 a coalition of veteran politicians, the Grand Alliance, ran on one message: "Indira Hatao" (Remove Indira). The late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi answered with "Garibi Hatao" (Remove Poverty) (The Wire).

"Indira Hatao" attacked one person and gave voters nothing to gain. "Garibi Hatao" turned a personal feud into a promise that included them. Gandhi did not leave it to the slogan. She pointed to the nationalisation of 14 private banks in 1969 and her push to abolish the princes' privy purses (The Wire; Indian National Congress). Economists still argue over what those policies achieved. As communication, they proved she meant it.

Lesson for comms teams: Turn an attack on you into a promise to your audience, and show proof that the promise is real.

2. Vote Chori allegation: a diagnosis without a call to action

Vote Chori has instant recall, and the phrase frequently headlines the 9pm live news shows. The Election Commission has firmly rejected the allegations; Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar told Rahul Gandhi to file a sworn affidavit or apologise within seven days (Outlook).

With the Voter Adhikar Yatra (The Tribune) and complaints to the Election Commission behind it, almost everyone who follows the news knows the phrase. For those who don't, slick AI-generated music videos, with a guitar-strumming hero and a dancing heroine in a bright red dress, carry the message to younger audiences. These videos are often labelled on YouTube as music videos or Bollywood songs to avoid political overtones. Yet you can't miss the AISA flag fluttering in and out of the background.

But recall has a long road to votes on the ground.

Why?

First, telling voters the system is rigged can put them off rather than fire them up. If people believe the roll is stolen, why queue for four hours to vote?

Second, Vote Chori says what is broken but not what comes next beyond a demand for the resignation of the CEC, the same approach that was used for the NEET results agitation ( the latter was successful).

In this case voters have nothing to sign up to. It has also come across mainly as a Gen Z protest, even though the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has affected citizens across age groups, often the poorest. In Uttar Pradesh, for instance, 1.55 crore women were deleted from the draft rolls, against 1.34 crore men, and migrants and slum-dwellers were among the hardest hit (The Federal). To an everyday voter, having the time and money to protest can look like privilege.

The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), now one of the campaign's loudest voices, adds a third challenge. It is a movement, not a registered party (The Washington Times), so it offers supporters no route into elections. That also makes it a magnet for groups with grievances of their own that may not fit its agenda, and an easy target for opponents.

Lesson for comms teams: Naming a problem gets attention. Telling people what to do about it gets action

3. The counter-attack: expect the other side to change the subject

Leave a gap and your opponent will fill it.

In the early weeks, the BJP answered Vote Chori by defending how the Election Commission works. In September its spokesperson Sambit Patra called reported differences among the election commissioners a sign of healthy democracy (Free Press Journal), and Sudhanshu Trivedi insisted the Commission's decisions were unanimous (Deccan Chronicle). That made the party look like the spokesperson for an independent constitutional body.

It has since changed the subject, casting criticism of the Election Commission as an attempt to destabilise India, like the street revolts in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. The BJP accused Rahul Gandhi of trying to "create anarchy" (ThePrint). Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation letter in July said he was stepping down so that "antinational forces" could not exploit the situation (Al Jazeera). RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had already set the frame in his 2025 Vijayadashami address, citing regime change in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal and warning that forces wanting the same in India were active inside and outside the country (The Statesman).

Lesson for comms teams: plan your answer to the counter-attack before you launch, not after.

What brands can teach about slogans as a campaign

1.Tata Tea, "Jaago Re" (2007–09)

In 2007 Tata Tea and its agency Lowe Lintas launched "Jaago Re" (Wake up) on a simple idea: if tea wakes up your body, why not your conscience (impact)? Most brands would have stopped at a clever ad about corruption and apathy. Tata Tea gave people something to do.

Ahead of the 2009 general election, it teamed up with the NGO Janaagraha on "One Billion Votes", a voter registration drive in colleges and offices across 35 cities. Its website helped young people find their constituency, print a ready-filled form in five minutes and get an SMS when their name reached the roll (Global Voices).

Janaagraha's own research had found error rates of upwards of 40 per cent in some voter lists (Business Today), the same worry that sits behind Vote Chori.

It paid off for the brand too. Industry tracking credits the campaign with helping Tata Tea narrow its market-share gap with Hindustan Unilever by 2009 (impact).

Lesson for comms teams: Tata Tea took a complaint about the system and turned it into a five-minute task. Give your audience a next step small enough to take today.

Pepsi, "Nothing official about it" (1996)

At the 1996 Cricket World Cup, Coca-Cola paid Rs 10 crore to be the official drink (Storyboard18). Pepsi could not use the tournament's name, so it mocked the idea of being official instead. Coke's biggest asset suddenly looked stiff and corporate, and Pepsi looked young and fun. The campaign became a textbook case of ambush marketing (Storyboard18). Pepsi didn't fight on its opponent's ground; it changed what the contest was about.

Lesson for comms teams: your rival's strongest claim can become their weak spot, and so can yours. Before you launch, ask how a competitor could flip your slogan, and close that gap first