The new “philanthropic” arm of ad agency Grey, Grey for Good, has provided lamps for a rural community in India with batteries powered by the escalators of a shopping mall in a campaign for a real estate firm.
The initiative, for real estate and hospitality group K Raheja Corp, has seen 50 lamps with rechargeable batteries supplied to Chandori village in the state of Maharashtra, which the agency says is the test bed for the idea. The batteries are charged in dynamos fixed at the base of the escalators in InOrbit Mall, which K Raheja Corp owns.
The charged batteries are replaced weekly by the logistics is managed by RC&M, Grey’s rural marketing arm.
“We believe in giving back to society and creating a more environmentally-friendly and socially conscientious place,” said Ravi Raheja, group president of K Raheja Corp.
“With The Escalator Project, we are able to make use of dead batteries, harness the energy produced from the escalators and use it to provide electricity to places that don’t have any.”
Grey’s regional boss Nirvik Singh said: “This is a project that’s very close to our hearts. It has been a team effort from K Raheja Corp, Grey for Good and RC&M, all contributing in their own capacities and across geographies. It is exciting to see this project come to life.”
The idea comes in a week of numerous launches from Grey, including a project for WWF that involved students painting trees in China to raise awareness of deforestation, bindis doubling as iodine patches to curb disease in India, and a print and outdoor campaign that suggests that the Beijing Subway is so fast the city’s emergency services are using it.
