The Government of Pakistan ranks among the topmost advertisers in Pakistan. Over the last five years, government expenditure on television and print totalled nine billion rupees. According to Aurora’s Fact File (published in November-December 2024) in FY 2023-24, the federal government was ranked number 1 among the top 10 advertisers on TV and the provincial governments Number 4. In print, the federal government was ranked Number 6 and the provincial governments Number Five 5 among the top 10 advertisers.

By any yardstick, this gives the Government of Pakistan tremendous spending power – even taking into account the fact that unlike the private sector, where ad tariffs are set by the media owners, the government determines its own tariffs. Given the cumulative volume of advertising placed by the federal and provincial governments in the print and electronic media, this gives the government enormous leverage over media coverage.

The government may be the nation’s largest advertiser, but it is not the nation’s greatest communicator. In terms of conceptual and creative execution and strategic direction, government ads are plain dull. Is there a reason for this? To some extent, it can be argued, that government advertising is about ticking the box. Government advertising is more about announcements rather than persuasion – electoral advertising being the exception. Given their hefty budgets, governments (federal and provincial) should theoretically be prized clients for advertising and media agencies that have the capability to deliver, at the very least, an adequate level of quality rather than the dull results seen on the electronic and print media. And whilst on the subject of media, the government should be significantly upping its presence on social media (usage at the moment is mainly confined to electoral/political advertising), given that 60% of the population is under 30.

At the root of the problem is the fact that governments in Pakistan seem trapped in old-fashioned notions of how to carry out advertising communications, and seem unable to hire the right resources to do the job. There is actually plenty governments can do with their ad budgets, and on multiple levels. To take just one glaring example. Pakistan is among the 10 most affected countries by climate change, and there is so much awareness that needs raising in terms of water conservation and management and environmental protection. Health and safety are other areas that would benefit from targeted advertising. Yet, successive governments seem to have devolved this responsibility to the private sector and individual initiatives. The budgets are there. What governments need to do is repurpose and redeploy their budgets, reorganise their internal human resources and hire the best external strategic and creative minds. But, perhaps first of all, the questions that need addressing are: what is the purpose of their budgets and what results does the government seek to achieve by advertising?

From Aurora’s archives

INTERVIEW Marriyum Aurangzeb, Minister of State for Information

PROFILE The Man Who Would Reimagine Pakistan: Muhammad Azfar Ahsan, CEO, Nutshell Forum, Former Minister of State & Chairman, BOI

ARTICLES The Politics of Communication – Arifa Noor

State and Media – Javed Jabbar

Veiled Opacity and Bland Mediocrity – Syed Ahmed