Thread by @TowardsLiberti

I did some research on the advertisement spree of Ch. Modi Government in its final two weeks before MCC kicked in.

I took @timesofindia as an example and made a rough estimate of the money government would have spent on ads to show us the invisible VIKAS. (1/6)

#ChModiAdSpree

I prepared a table after analyzing Times of India e-paper from 23-Feb to 10-Mar. I went through 14 editions. I used standard rates available for each edition for specific pages(front, back, 3rd page, any page).

The total amount I arrived at is ₹134 Cr. Wait, there's more. (2/6)

The govt does not follow ad agency rates. In fact, it is much lower than the standard rates.

In January, govt hiked the ad rates by 25%. By doing a back of the envelope math on DAVP rates, I arrived at govt rates being 1/6th of standard rates. (3/6)

thehindubusinessline.com/markets/stock-…

Which makes the total around ₹22 Cr. Now Times Group has the other publications too.

The Economic Times
Mirror
Maharashtra Times
Navbharat Times
Ei Samay
Vijay Karnataka

I checked Maharashtra Times and ET and found that a lot of full-page ads were present. (4/6)

Likewise, if you add up all major English, Hindi and Regional newspapers in India, you will be able to roughly estimate the amount of money spent in these two weeks.

Again add, TV, Radio, Internet & Billboards featuring NaMo. (5/6)

And finally, add the content creation charges for all these mediums, which includes paying actors, models(not NaMo), graphics, editing and production costs.

I feel ₹ 1000 Crores is an underestimate.

Correct me if I have made any mistakes in my assumptions and calculations.