Daily Times

Sir: A few streamers on the Mall road state that the two-drop polio campaign will held in Lahore. If you stop your car, which one will inevitably have to do as the artwork is too cluttered, and look closely, you will find out that the campaign was from June 2-6.

What is infuriating is that the Mall road is the only place where one will find this; what is even more infuriating is the fact that Pakistan is one of maybe three countries that still play host to this disease. With a lack of trust of the general public towards the polio campaign to begin with and with Dr Afridi putting the nail in the coffin, one would expect the government and the UN stakeholders to be a little proactive about this. A marketing campaign to reinforce a positive image should be made and present it as a necessity or even a publicity campaign, but lo and behold, we can see no posters, streamers, billboards or any sort of advertisement in any area except for a few poles on the upper Mall. Places like Shahdara, Sherkot, Gulshan-e-Ravi, Shah Jamal, Nishat, R A Bazar and all other major or even minor areas are completely ignored. The problem with this lies again with the mindset of the people involved, where they do all the groundwork but lay no foundation whatsoever for any sort of brand equity. Since people do not know about it and are not sold on it, hence the indifference.

If everybody in Pakistan can ask who decided that a major carbonated drink should be for Rs 65, then everybody in Pakistan should also know that two drops can save a life.

My plea to the people involved: spend a little money and create demand and acceptability!

USMAN DILSHAD

Lahore