Inner Calling

Manish Vyas has always been an academician at heart – be it the teenager teaching English to the house-help’s son or volunteering at an orphanage. Later as an adult, he unapologetically spammed several people in the process of crowdfunding Rs.6 lakh for the Sikkim Himalayan Academy, a free school for underprivileged children. Here’s another story: Jubin Mehta left his cushy job and moved to Dharamshala in a quest for spirituality. Eventually, he helped launch a magazine to showcase the life there. If anything, listening to one’s inner voice takes courage. Men’s clothing brand Oxemberg brings together three such stories in its latest Make Your Move campaign.

The films in the series are as much about the individual’s inner journey as it is a step towards doing community service. Animesh Singh, marketing manager, Oxemberg, says, “We wanted to connect with young India or the millennials, who want to stand for a cause. Therefore, we wanted to go ahead with this project to salute real life individuals, who are making a difference by giving the planet and humanity another chance. They have shown that an individual’s effort can give rise to a collective revolution.”

The campaign kicked off in November 2017, with its spotlight on Afroz Shah who took it upon himself to clean the Versova beach in Mumbai in 2015. Till date, his initiative helped gather 7,600 tonne of waste. Call them regular people, but here is a group trying to make a change. “If a brand is talking about making a move, it also needs to stand for it first. This prompted us to look at social entrepreneurs who actually made their move, and then tie it up with the brand’s idea,” says Harsh Desai, chief creative officer, Lowfundwala.

And if there is a matter close to your heart, perhaps it is time, after all, to let yourself make that move.

You can watch the ad film here