My younger brother was awe-struck when he answered our landline a couple of days back – it was Imran Khan on the line!

Assalam-o-Alaikum. This is Imran Khan. How are you? I’m coming to your city to bring everyone together on December 25 at Mazar-e-Quaid for a rally. I hope that you can break all the shackles and take part because at this rally we need to make the beginning of a new Pakistan. I will be waiting, Thank you.

The Tehreek-e-Insaf has initiated a very different and creative marketing campaign, to reach out to the public in person, and it will undoubtedly have its effect.

The PTI has disclosed that they will be calling some 300,000 land lines in Karachi which is roughly half the total number of land line (PTCL) subscribers in Pakistan.

This, regardless of the brilliant marketeers behind this idea, raises a few questions:

1. Being unsolicited, is this not Spam? This question was first raised by a blogger here
2. Who provided them this long a list of over 300,000 valid phone numbers?

We have another argument, presented by one of my telecom-expert friends, that land line numbers are published worldwide in directories and are public information.

This however raises an another question, owners are asked for their permission before their numbers are published in directories, does PTCL ask customers for such a listing when applying for a number?

Regardless of how we choose to classify it, let us all admit and especially marketeers will appreciate this, that it is without a shadow of doubt one of the best marketing (political) campaigns we have ever witnessed in Pakistan.

If you want to hear Imran Khan’s pre-recorded message, you can call 042-38375454 for yourself.