whole genre is being influenced by the Digital Revolution. India’s Narendra Modi was an early social media user, and a first of his kind in politics. Dubbed “King of social media”, his titles ultimately included Prime Minister. Despite the clamour surrounding President Donald Trump, Modi has 20 million more followers on Twitter. Political advertising has always been “parent–child”: the politician telling you what is good for you. Now the “child” can speak. The initial obstacle was to persuade the Bharatiya Janata party that the campaign should be centred around the individual. But once that was cleared, the way was opened for a Modi moment which was couched in the vernacular: using the language the voters used, and not the official, formal-sounding language of national television.