Mumbai Police takes on honkers with new campaign

Conceptualised by FCB Interface, The Punishing Signal is an attempt by Mumbai Police to make people realise the nuisance of honking.

Metro cities across the world seem to have their own sets of battles against noise pollution. Mumbai is one of them and peculiarly so, much of the noise in the mix is contributed by vehicles struck at a red traffic signal. The issue is severe enough for the Mumbai Police is to come up with a solution. Called The Punishing Signal, the new campaign takes a look at the issue with a pinch of humour and wit.

As part of the initiative, special decibel meters were connected to a few signals poles around the city and if the reading would exceed 85 decibels, the signal would reset, forcing people to wait longer. The idea was to punish them with an intent to educate them about the perils of impatience. Upon reset, the board would read: Honk more, wait more!

As a part of the campaign, the first leg of activation was tested in Mumbai at important junctions that are most prone to heavy traffic such as CSMT, Marine Drive, Peddar Road, Hindmata and Bandra.

"Honking is a bad habit and an act of traffic indiscipline. Unfortunately, many Mumbaikars indulge in reckless honking. This small experiment is one of the many attempts by Mumbai Police to create better road discipline in the city. Hopefully, it will encourage Mumbaikars to honk less and create a noise-free and stress-free commute," said Madhukar Pandey, Jt. Commissioner of Police(Traffic), Mumbai Police.

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Shedding light on the creative idea, Robby Mathew, Chief Creative Officer, FCB Interface, said, “Sometimes, the stick works better than the carrot. And a signal that gave us a gentle rap on the knuckles for honking unnecessarily, seemed like a good idea to me”.

Adding, Rohit Ohri, Group Chairman and CEO, FCB Group said, “We have been partnering Mumbai Police for many years now. Noise pollution is a big problem in our cities. This new initiative is a fantastic creative solution for bringing about awareness and a behaviour change amongst the drivers in Mumbai.”

Campaign Elements: Digital
Client: Mumbai Police
Creative Agency: FCB Interface
Creative Team: Fred Levron, Robby Mathew, Mukesh Jadhav, Rakesh Menon, Ravi Ananthan, Mayuresh Vengurlekar, Siddharth Kutty
Media Team: Dhruv Jha, Amit Raina
Account Management: Shailesh Gupte
Social Media: Rahul Shenoy, Shreyas Deshmukh
Films Team: Alpa Jobalia, Mazhar Khan
Director of TVC: Akshay Nair
DOP (of the TVC): Sujay Pawar
Producers: Sukirth Rao, Archana Sarkar, Shwetabh Mishra
Production House: 30ML Ideas
Production Music Partner: Saregama