Karthik S | beastoftraal.com

Godrej Cinthol, ITC Fiama, and a little less water!

June 20, 2024 by Karthik S

Scenario 1: Almost every Indian city is facing some amount of water shortage during summers these days. Some of the cities, like Bengaluru (earlier this year) and Delhi (now) make more news than others. Scenario 2: There are a LOT of shower…

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Kya baat kar rahe ho, OYO?

June 11, 2024 by Karthik S

One of the most basic lessons I learnt in my PR days (across both client-side corporate communications and agency-side public relations) is ‘do not repeat the negative’. There is ample reason for this. And all those reasons lead to a simple human…

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Did you think it through, Bombae?

May 2, 2024 by Karthik S

By now, everyone has denounced that abominable print ad by Bombay Shaving Company (BSC)/Bombae that the brand released on the back page (not the front page, as many have mistakenly pointed out) of HT City, Hindustan Times’ city supplement in Mumbai, on…

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Chick-Fil-A’s employee advocacy blunder

April 24, 2024 by Karthik S

Employee advocacy is a big deal for most consumer-facing companies. I know this first-hand since I have worked on employee advocacy programs—either to kickstart one, or to plan to the strategy of an existing program—during my agency days. When I quit 9-to-5…

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5 popular myths on personal branding: Busted!

April 15, 2024 by Karthik S

I have been doing corporate workshops on personal branding since 2018. And while preparing myself for each session, and during the opening of each workshop, I encounter similar skepticism around the topic. I don’t begrudge the skepticism at all. Skepticism is good,…

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Not on the same boAt

April 1, 2024 by Karthik S

No, I was not at all planning to write about the new boAt campaign that everyone seems to be sure that they must have an opinion about 🙂 But, after seeing enough butthurt fanboys tear the campaign down, it probably deserves some…

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How would you gain from India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act?

March 28, 2024 by Karthik S

I had the privilege of being in a panel discussion organized by ASCI (Advertising Standards Council of India) recently on data privacy, on the back of India passing the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023. To be honest, when Manisha Kapoor,…

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