Karthik S | beastoftraal.com

Vakrangee’s opportunity between ‘news’ and ‘advertising’ – PR or media buying?

January 31, 2020January 31, 2020 by Karthik S

I have a feeling I have been seeing a LOT of news about Vakrangee in the past one week. It was on 28th January (Tuesday), and again, today, in ET. Also on January 29th, in Moneycontrol. The interesting connecting point between all…

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Outsourcing things that made us who we are… to a machine

January 30, 2020January 30, 2020 by Karthik S

Google’s new Super Bowl film is a poignant affair. Watch it first. What I found fascinating is not the emotional current per se; that is very, very well done, of course, in true Google style (made in-house). You can’t help but feel…

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Banning ads that perpetuate gender stereotypes

January 29, 2020January 29, 2020 by Karthik S

In August last year, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) of UK banned 2 TV advertisements made for Philadelphia, the Mondelez-owned cream cheese brand and Volkswagen. The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) offers guidance to ASA. Using the CAP guidelines, people could complain…

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The UX of a banana

January 28, 2020January 28, 2020 by Karthik S

I have referred to the UX of a banana reasonably often on Twitter. But I think I have not said enough, in context. I have a very special admiration for the whole of the banana species given how extraordinarily it puts itself…

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A spoon with a hole!

January 27, 2020January 27, 2020 by Karthik S

An elegant solution to a very, very common problem even in India. This is by the agency CJ WORX (Bangkok), Thailand, for their client, Thai Health Promotion Foundation. To an extent, the idea to create a new spoon, and expect us to…

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Why wouldn’t Big Bazaar make the most of India’s languages?

January 24, 2020January 24, 2020 by Karthik S

On January 22nd, Big Bazaar released full-page (and front-page) ads in The Times of India for their Republic Day sale. It was a multi-edition advertising blitzkrieg as usual, but some of the nuances are worth observing and pondering about. I opened my…

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Seagram’s Men Will Be Men, courtesy an all-women team!

January 23, 2020October 13, 2020 by Karthik S

UPDATE (October 13, 2020): The 18th episode is out, today. As usual, by Ogilvy India. And, as always, it’s terribly amusing to see Pernod Ricard selling “Superhits Music CDs” as a surrogate advertising tactic when we have all moved to streaming music…

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