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Jagadish Vasudev, popularly known as Sadhguru, and his not-for-profit organisation Isha Foundation, spent an average of Rs 1.35 lakh per day in advertising on Facebook and Instagram, in the past quarter, topping the list of top spenders in India on ads about "social issues, elections or politics."
Between 29 April and 27 July 2022, Isha Outreach spent Rs 99,24,933 on the Sadhguru page and Rs 21,66,146 on the Conscious Planet page, amounting to a rough total of Rs 1 crore 21 lakh, according to data published by Meta.
Meta defines social issues as "sensitive topics that are heavily debated, may influence the outcome of an election or result in/relate to existing or proposed legislation."
After Sadhguru, the largest advertiser on the list is home-grown microblogging platform Koo, which spent over Rs 83 lakh. It is followed by OTT platform Voot Select which spent nearly Rs 66 lakh over three months.
Meta itself is in seventh place with an expenditure of Rs 37,50,000. BJP Gujarat and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) occupy the 11th and 12th places with ad spending of around Rs 16 lakh and Rs 15 lakh, respectively.
Here's the complete list of the top 12 spenders.
Most of the money spent on ads about social issues, elections, or politics (about Rs 1 crore 65 lakh) was spent in Uttar Pradesh. It was followed by Maharashtra and Gujarat, where advertisers spent Rs 1 crore 37 lakh and Rs 1 crore 14 lakh, respectively.
Over the past three months, nearly 13,000 advertisers from India spent Rs 14 crore in advertising on Meta's Facebook and Instagram. India is one of Meta's largest markets.
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