Karthik S | beastoftraal.com

Siway Jon Hamm!

January 25, 2022February 14, 2024 by Karthik S

Back in September 2021, Disney+ Hotstar launched a campaign titled ‘Siway SRK’, co-written by Devaiah Bopanna, Tanmay Bhat, Vishal Dayama, Puneet Chadha, and Deep Joshi. The narrative device was unique – it has a very well-known star (Shah Rukh) who wants to…

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Brands volunteering to get roasted on Twitter

January 24, 2022January 24, 2022 by Karthik S

Fast-food giant Wendy’s invented the ‘National Roast Day’ back in 2018, as a Twitter version of the ‘roasting’ done by comics at the New York Friars Club, Dean Martin’s Celebrity Roasts in his TV show in the 70s, or the Comedy Central…

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I disagree with Adam Grant’s perspective on personal branding

January 21, 2022January 21, 2022 by Karthik S

Wharton’s organizational psychologist Adam Grant recently stirred the ‘personal brand’ pot given how people hold myopic and misleading views about the topic and, as a result, tend to see it as a not-so-desirable activity 🙂 This is what he shared. The time…

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CXOs making time for social media conversations

January 20, 2022January 20, 2022 by Karthik S

When social media was fairly new, in the mid-to-late-2000s, we were endlessly told about the 2-way communication nature/possibilities of social media platforms and about the need to avoid using them as broadcast-only and to make use of the conversations they enable. From…

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Are you sufficiently offended by advertisements?

January 19, 2022January 19, 2022 by Karthik S

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) recently released a report titled, ” (PDF) based on 1,759 complaints received by the ASCI (against 488 ads) in the last 3 years. ASCI had taken only those complaints that pertain to two of its…

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Regional cinema is going pan-Indian. Can advertising follow suit?

January 18, 2022January 18, 2022 by Karthik S

Much has been written about the spectacular pan-India success of the recent Allu Arjun-starrer Pushpa that should be called a ‘Telugu film’, but is instead an ‘Indian film’, given its 5-language release strategy (Telugu, with dubbed versions in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, and…

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A misdirected rant against mayonnaise

January 17, 2022January 17, 2022 by Karthik S

Back in early 2021, Unilever’s 108-year old mayonnaise brand Hellmann’s pitched a new product positioning during the Superbowl. The brand’s agency Wunderman Thompson explained the positioning in its website: “An iconic brand that has been sitting in the back of your fridge…

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