In this episode of Editorial, HW News' Managing Editor, Mr. Sujit Nair, discusses the Uttar Pradesh government led by CM Yogi Adityanath spending ₹6,811.94 crore on advertising and publicity, an average of ₹2.32 crore every day and questions whether such expenditure is justified.
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[00:00:00] It is between 2017-18 and 2024-25, the Yogi government has spent close to 6,811.94 Cr in advertising. Is it only to create more and more Godi media that you are spending this kind of money? Or is it this money being spent to actually help the brand, build the state into a good brand? Is it what's happening? We see ads of every state, be it Uttar Pradesh, be it Maharashtra, be it every state we see ads,
[00:00:28] full page, color ads. Why are you doing this kind of spend? Namaskar! Welcome to another episode of Editorial. You see, when you spend on advertising, that particular spend is not a random number.
[00:00:52] It is not that you say that, okay, I am going to advertise my product, I am going to advertise my services, so I am going to spend 100 crores. It is not like that. It doesn't work that way. The question then will be, why not 120 crores? Why 100 crores? Or why not 80 crores? Why 100 crores? So the point is, it is not random. There's a lot of calculation that goes into it. There's a lot of rationale that goes into it. There's a lot of thinking that goes into it.
[00:01:22] The advertising agency or your planning agency or media planning agency puts a lot of tools in it. And that's how the figure comes in front of you. The advertising amount, the perfect amount that you should be spending for your product, your services, your launch, so on and so forth. This is how it happens. So whenever we come and talk to you saying that the government is spending so much, whenever we come and talk to you saying that, listen, you know, full page ad in Kerala government
[00:01:49] spending in Tamil Nadu or whatever, spending in Delhi or Maharashtra government spending in Kolkata, West Bengal government spending in Maharashtra. When these kind of advertising happens, one should wonder, why is Uttar Pradesh trying to talk to you? Why is Uttar Pradesh trying to gloat itself in Maharashtra or why is Maharashtra trying to gloat itself in Gujarat? Gujarat trying to gloat itself in Tamil Nadu. One wonders, one wonders. And that's what I've been talking to you not once but many a times.
[00:02:20] And I want to dwell in this subject. I want to deep dive into this subject. You see, there was a, there's an article in News Laundry, which says that in 2017-18 and between, that is between 2017-18 and 2024-25, the Yogi government has spent close to 6,811.94 crores in advertising,
[00:02:43] which is roughly translating to around 2.32 crores, 2.32 crores per day in advertising. This is what the News Laundry article says. They say it is more than what Narendra Modi government spent at the centre, which amounts to 1.5 crores in the last 11 years. 1.5 crores per day, per day. The point that I'm trying to make is, are these figures justified? 8000 crores,
[00:03:14] whatever, 10,000 crores. Are these figures really justified? You see, why are you spending this kind of money for who are you spending this kind of money? How does this money help? How does it money help the state? How does this money help the country? Or is it helping the politician and it is helping the media houses? It is only, is it only to create more and more Godi media that you are
[00:03:40] spending this kind of money? Or is it this money being spent to actually help the brand, build the state into a good brand? Is it what's happening? And believe me you, I don't think the intention of spending this kind of money is either to help build India into a fantastic brand or a state into a fantastic brand. I don't think so because I don't see there has not been a single document or a single press conference or a single presentation that the government has done to the
[00:04:08] people where they have said that listen, this is the logic why we are spending this kind of money. And if there is an advertising agency involved, and I'm sure there should be a media agency involved, that media agency will give you a presentation saying that this is why I spent this kind of money, there will be a logic every penny will be justified. And my colleagues from media and advertising will endorse this. When we present to a client, every penny that we spend for that client, it is
[00:04:35] justified. We justify it. Rupee ana paise, we justify it. Where is the justification here? And if there is no justification, then why shouldn't we believe that this money is purely to enhance the brand name of that political party who is governing the state, the brand name of the political leader who is leading that state and the brand name and to ensure that you favour media,
[00:05:03] you convert media into Godi media. You convert media into Godi media because if you don't give this kind of money, two crores, three crores per day, if you don't give this kind of money that Godi media may write against you. And if you continuously go on feeding the Godi media this kind of money, obviously, they will say whatever you want them to because end of the day, your money helps them to survive. I'll give you an example. You know, the biggest advertiser in India, one of the biggest
[00:05:28] advertisers in India according to Pitch Madison advertising report, which is tracked the spend from Jan to December 2025 published in 2026. Hindustan Unilever spends 4000 to 4500 crores. The largest advertiser in India spends 4000 to 4500 crores. Cadbury spends 1300 to 1400 crores. Procter & Gamble spends 1300 to 1400 crores. Hundreds of brands, hundreds of brands put together 1300 to 1400
[00:05:56] crores. The largest advertiser in India again, who has got huge number of number of brands spends around 4500 to 4000 to 4500 crores. Yet our government seems to be spending humongous amount of money 2.32 crores per day 6811 crores from 2017 to 2024. Think about it. Think about it. Where are you spending
[00:06:23] this money? What brand are you selling? What brand have you created? What brand have you created? Hindustan liver has created a surf. Hindustan liver has created a close up. Hindustan liver has created a ring. Hindustan liver has created 100 other brand. What brand have we created? What brand are we marketing? What great marketing strategy have we been showing in the last five years and saying that this is the brand, this is how we
[00:06:49] launched it, this is how we marketed it and look at how the world is consuming us now. Which brand have we created? If we have not created brand then where's the money? Are we not accountable? You're spending this kind of money. Are we not accountable to the people saying that this is how the money was spent and this is what that money which was spent got as returns? Think about it. Think about it. See the issue here is
[00:07:13] I'm not even being kind of I'm just asking the government to be logical. You're spending taxpayers money. You're spending taxpayers money. Now, these are the figures that I got it from news laundry. I don't know. I mean, I'm sure they've done their own research. The point is we see ads of every state beat Uttar Pradesh beat Maharashtra beat every state. We see ads full page color ads.
[00:07:41] Why are you doing this kind of spend? What is how is this helping you? What we as citizen need to ask our government is whenever we see an ad, we need to ask our government as to what has that money that we have spent on that ad. I repeat money that we have spent on that particular ad. What has it done for our nation? What has it done for our state? Has that particular ad increased investments? Has that
[00:08:09] particular ad increased health care? Has that particular ad increased cleanliness? Has that particular ad increased women safety? Has that particular ad increased tourism? Look at each and every ad that you see on your television, on your newspaper and ask this question. If that ad has not done anything of that, then that ad has wasted your money. That ad has wasted your money and we can,
[00:08:37] I can, I believe that that money has been utilized so that it helps either the politician whose face you see in that ad because end of the day, there is no need to have a politician's face in a government ad. Why do you want to show a politician? But then because you're then selling a politician. So the brand owner or the ad owner is not the politician, is it? Ad owner is the state, but you will always find the politician's face there. What I mean by ad owner is when you see an ad,
[00:09:06] you will find a brand logo down because that, that brand owns the ad. Here you will find a politician's face standing like this on the ground. Why? Because he owns, at least he pretends he owns, he or she owns the ad and the benefit of that ad goes to him. Either that or they are trying to keep the media happy. They are trying to fund the media with your money so that the media, what you see around the Godi media will never question the government, will never ask the government
[00:09:32] any, any uncomfortable questions and will always do what the government wants it to do. If they don't, then the ads are stopped. And if the ads are stopped, there is no other revenue for the, for the Godi media. At the end of the day, they function to please the government now. They function to please the government. So this is something that you should be mindful of.
[00:09:55] And as an advertising professional, let me tell you this, advertising spend is a rationale. Advertising spend is technical. There is a scientific way to do it. There's a tool that is in operation. If all of that doesn't exist, and if the government cannot justify why they have advertised every single ad that they do, if their government cannot justify why they have advertised to the people who are
[00:10:22] actually spending for this advertising, then that at that government has wasted your money. This is a one line thought I want to leave behind. If they have not rationalized as to why those ads have been released, then those ads are actually wasting your money. That's the point I wanted to make. And till I see you next time. That's tomorrow at 10. Namaskar.