I picked up this news from the Yahoo PRPoint group. Apparently Ogilvy and Mather in Mumbai had run into a bit rough weather over a promo campiagn it conducted among some journalists.

The New Indian Express reported that a leading Public Relations agency based in Mumbai is drawing flak for creating a scare among lady journalists in Chennai by conducting a novel promotional event for a new television programme. The agency, Ogilvy and Mather, sent certificates to women journalists announcing that their names had been changed and registered.

Even as the addressees were wondering about the certificate, the agency sent them mysterious gifts along with snapshots of a male model with some romantic letters and a bill for $100. The novel theme, however, misfired.

A couple of harassed journalists from this website’s newspaper and The Economic Times lodged a complaint with Greater Chennai Police Commissioner Letika Saran about the receipt of the mystery parcels last week.

Immediately, the matter was investigated and the origin of the mystery parcels was traced to Ogilvy and Mather in Mumbai. The agency claimed that the exercise was part of a promo for a new programme ‘Vicky Vedal’ slated to be telecast in Disney channel.

Officials with Oglivy said that they had selected 1,000 people working in leading media organisations and sent letters announcing that their names had been changed.

The change of name certificate enclosed with the letter gave a new surname to the addressee. In one case surname of a lady journalist was ‘changed’ into Roshan and a new website ‘MyNameIsRoshan.com’ was created by the agency. The parcel arrived within a few days of receiving the letter. The parcel also contained a bill for 100 dollars routed through nbay.com.

The officials said the idea was to unravel the mystery by making a group of guitarists play at the doorstep of the company and announce that the whole thing was all for fun.

A senior police officer told this website’s newspaper, ‘They have violated the law and duplicated registration seals. The case is still under investigation.’

Meanwhile, officials from Ogilvy and Mather approached City Police Commissioner Letika Saran and apologised. They also said, ‘We have not received any complaints from any part of the country so far.’ However, the agency claimed that they had intimated senior officials about the mystery parcels sent to one of their staff and also got permission from courier service. The police warned the agency not to indulge in such promotional activities.

There is also a news item on this in Mumbai Mirror.

Well, I’m no legal expert and can’t comment on whether any law has been broken or not. But apart from that, I wonder why people can’t take some things easy. Talk about the media having a laugh at the expenses of unwary people in programmes like Bakra and Chhupa Rustam. If you go about complaining to the police, Cyrus Broacha would have hung up his boots long time back at MTV. The media can bribe people in the name of sting operations. But now, when the tables are tuned, they freaked.

All I can say to Ogilvy and Mather is that it was a good idea and would have worked well as a good media relations exercise while doing the promo campaign for your client. The only bummer was the target media list. You chose some wrong people. Cheer up guys.
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