Karthik S | beastoftraal.com

The 10 best Indian ads of 2022

January 2, 2023 by Karthik S

Year 2 of making this list! Here’s the list from 2021, for context. Let me reiterate: this list is not based on ad effectiveness. Effectiveness metrics, in whatever way it is measured, would be available only with the people who made the…

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Vim throws the kitchen sink at men

December 12, 2022 by Karthik S

Hindustan Unilever recently stirred the kitchen sink with a dishwash product meant only for men (campaign by the agency MullenLowe Lintas). How do we know that the new Vim is only for men? Well, for starters, it says so, on the pack….

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Monster India’s mass employee exodus that wasn’t

November 23, 2022 by Karthik S

Shorter version on audio: YouTube: Spotify: Full version: Update: Such use of renaming/rebranding for a campaign/surprise is not new, of course. As pointed out by Bobin James in a Facebook comment, back in 2005, when the Indian arm of the ad agency…

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Matchmaker Sima Taparia’s half-hearted career pivot

November 21, 2022 by Karthik S

Shorter version on audio: YouTube: Spotify: Full post: Sima Taparia is a real, full-time, professional matchmaker since 2005. But her fame skyrocketed after the Netflix series, Indian Matchmaking, in 2020. Sima is on Instagram with over 117,000 followers and this is no…

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Personal branding vs. Professional networking

November 14, 2022 by Karthik S

If you look up ‘professional networking’ online, it is defined as ‘sharing information, interacting, and engaging with people for mutual benefit’. Professional networking conjures images of a group of people in a room, all talking in smaller circles in hushed tones. For…

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A TV series in a cinema theater?

November 7, 2022 by Karthik S

Would you be ready to watch a TV series in a cinema theater? Considering the amount of money lavished on both The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and House of the Dragon, and the sweepingly large-screen’ish way they have…

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A prequel to that Sabhyata Diwali ad

October 31, 2022 by Karthik S

The recent Diwali ad by Sabhyata, a clothing brand, made by the agency ‘P se Picture’ garnered a lot of praise. The narrative in this ad reminded me of a classic episode of Darpan or Katha Saagar that I used to love…

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