Congress’ ad war continues; takes a jibe at BJP with a cricket-themed ad

Amid the ongoing 18th General Elections, rival political parties, the Indian National Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party, are seen targeting each other through new advertisements with various references.

Continuing the trend, Congress has come up with a new cricket spoof ad showing how BJP leaders are winning the tournament by keeping the country's big players under their control. The viewers can easily recognise the characters portrayed in the spot.

The ad begins with a cricket match where two batsmen (posing as leaders from BJP) from Team Hafta Kings are trying hard to win the competition, whereas the fielding team is presented as the opposition. As the bowler delivers the ball, the on-strike batsman hits it in the air, and a fielder catches it immediately, thus celebrating the victory.

But he notices a personnel similar to a bodyguard wearing a uniform with Extortion Department written on it. As he glares at the fielder, he drops the catch, and the umpire declares the batsman not out. Here, Congress is referring to the Enforcement Directorate as the Extortion Department.

The same continued when fielders were able to stop the batsmen from scoring but could not because the Extortion Department team instructed them not to. This resulted in a big win for Team Hafta Kings, and they were awarded a cheque of Rs 8,300 crore from Chanda Vasooli Bank. The ad ends with two players celebrating their victory, which they achieved through unfair means.

The message Congress conveyed was that the ruling party has always won through unfair means, and it is now time to remove all the injustice it has been inflicting on India, urging people to vote for Congress in this election. The political party, through its ads, assures people that it will help them with timely treatment from hospitals, employment, providing gas cylinders to homemakers, and more.

Congress has created several ads with references to events such as cricket and well-known Bollywood movies like Bhool Bhulaiyaa. Not just this, the party is also promoting its campaigns on social and digital media platforms and is proactively keeping up with viral Instagram trends.

The party recently created a post featuring popular offbeat Instagram influencer Puneet Kumar, also known as Puneet Superstar. At the same time, Puneet Superstar was also seen with a Congress banner conveying that his vote was for the party.

From April 1, 2024, to April 26, 2024, the Indian National Congress (INC) spent Rs 18 crore on Google ad campaigns as compared to the period from January 1, 2024, to March 15, 2024, when it only spent Rs 14 lakh.

The Lok Sabha elections started on April 19, 2024, and will continue until June 1, 2024. The results are scheduled to be announced on June 4, 2024.