Says Ramesh Narayan, president, Advertising Club: ``It's for the first time that the advertising industry is joining hands with the police for a worthy cause. The main objective of the multilingual campaign is to encourage the citizens to help the police force in its fight against crime.'' The campaign will also highlight the complete anonymity factor and popularise the crime line telephone No: 2633333, at Mumbai.

Last month the Club announced a contest `Save your city' to select the best advertising campaign to effectively deliver the social message. A clarion call was sent to all its members to participate in the contest. In response to this, the clubreceived more than 350 entries from leading advertising agencies across the city. ``The response is tremendous. The print and outdoor campaigns in addition to emphasising the anonymity factor, have also built in the emotional element,'' explains Narayan. On 9 January 1999, a panel of judges selected the best entries in four different categories. In the press campaign (English) category, Madison DMB&B has bagged the honour of best campaign. And Ammirati Puris Lintas' campaign was chosen as the best Hindi campaign (press). The campaigns from Canco Advertising Pvt Ltd, and Cosmos Advertising were selected as the best Gujarati & Marathi campaigns respectively. Hindustan Thompson Associates' contribution was adjudged the best in the outdoor campaign category.

According to Narayan, the campaign should create a high level of interaction between the police and the public, and therefore, will run for two months. According to Zubin Driver, creative director, Madison DMB&B, the agency tried to adopt a practicalapproach to drive home the message.

``Our approach is based on the fact that many Mumbaikers want to do something about curtailing crime. But they do not know how to go about it. Or they are scared about repercussions,'' he says. Ammirati Puri Lintas' creative team has come up with a three-ad campaign in Hindi to highlight the efficacy of the police help line.