NEW DELHI: The whole nation was in frenzy when DDB MudraMax and Zee News together put forth a unique social message during India and Pakistan match at the ICC World Cup 2015.
Manual scoreboards were installed in Jammu & Kashmir, New Delhi and Lahore, Karachi. The scoreboard kept ticking over as the match progressed. There was just one problem they were wrong.
Onlookers remained hooked on to the scoreboard, however as time went on, it was clear that something was wrong. The numbers on these installed scoreboards didn’t emulate the actual scores. They moved briskly from one to hundreds and from hundreds to thousands. A similar pattern followed when Pakistan batted. The scoreboard at the end of the match read: India 0 for the loss of 546,030, Pakistan 0 for the loss of 546,228. Despite the subtle hint, most onlookers failed to understand the underlying message.
The concealed message on the scoreboards was revealed only after Indian won the match. It read, ‘When lives are Lost, No one wins.” (Hence the 0 on the scoreboard) The numbers kept increasing and stopped at 547,290 for India and 546,228 for Pakistan.
These numbers were symbolic of the lives lost since 1947 during several wars fought between both the countries, as well as the numerous skirmishes which happen on the border on an almost daily basis. The absurdity of the numbers 5 lakhs and counting was not the exact figure of lives lost, but rather a pointer to the fact that after a while, death just becomes a number. It is the very reality of deaths through war which is abhorrent, not the numbers themselves.
The video is also reminders that as the nations engage themselves with India-Pakistan cricket, drumming up jingoistic emotions in the process, people are still dying at the border and critical issues still remain unresolved.
