Karthik S | beastoftraal.com

The top view of a crocodile

May 17, 2022September 14, 2023 by Karthik S

A very senior marketing industry professional messaged me in the month of March after seeing my commentary on a new ad film. (I took their permission to talk about our conversation but, obviously, without any identifiable references, either of the person or…

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Evolution of quick-grocery communication narratives

May 16, 2022September 10, 2024 by Karthik S

I guess Zepto has caught on to a nice advertising template, concocted by the agency L&K Saatchi and Saatchi. After Kailash Kher and Shankar Mahadevan, here’s the 3rd in the singers-stretching-time series, featuring Usha Uthup. Unlike the earlier two ads, this one…

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Uber India’s comms overdrive – great ads, contrasting reality

April 7, 2022April 7, 2022 by Karthik S

I was very pleasantly surprised by this new Uber Moto ad made by the agency FCB India. Watch it first and tell me if you also thought what I thought was going on 🙂 And then read below. I’m fairly sure the…

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Advertising to the visually and hearing impaired

April 6, 2022April 6, 2022 by Karthik S

A recent ad by the agency Droga5 for Amazon Alexa has a character who is hard of hearing – she says so herself, to the characters in the film within the ad film. That helps the ad’s narrative plug the voice-recognition capabilities…

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Our relationship with endless data

April 5, 2022April 5, 2022 by Karthik S

When Gmail launched on April 1, 2004, many people actually thought it was an April Fool’s joke. Reason? Gmail was offering 1GB storage space. For context, Yahoo Mail offered 4MB storage space at that time for free accounts, while Hotmail offered 2MB!…

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Turning the table on smartphone ownership

April 4, 2022April 4, 2022 by Karthik S

Smartphone launches have taken on a predictable annual rhythm. Almost every brand worth its name releases at least one upgrade every year no matter how minimal that so-called upgrade is in terms of hardware or software additions. And many users have conditioned…

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The Kerala Snake Boat race between Snuggy and Munch

March 31, 2022March 31, 2022 by Karthik S

Well, well, well! What are the chances! Two new ads, released almost back-to-back, have quite a few unusual coincidences! Let me start with the broad coincidence: both are national brands. Brand 1 is Snuggy, the diaper brand from Nobel Hygiene, known for…

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