The 10 best Indian ads of 2024
I started compiling the 10 best Indian advertisements since 2021 and share the list on the first Monday of every year. 2025’s first Monday gave me a lot of time to work on my compilation since it falls on the 6th of…
Category: marketing & advertising
The Madam who cried wolf
Yet another so-called ‘viral marketing’ campaign that uses a blatant lie as its main, cost-free tool. Yes, the latest YesMadam campaign follows the spectacular misfire by the agency Schbang and Poonam Pandey earlier this year. I had written about why that campaign…
How should we react to the use of AI?
So much has been said and written about how we could use AI in assorted tasks. But let me turn that focus away from using and towards reacting. How should we react to AI when we come across its usage? Allow me…
Nike asks, “Am I a bad person?”
The new Nike ad (“Winning isn’t for everyone”, made by the agency Wieden+Kennedy) seems to stir a lot of reactions in anyone who sees it once. The full text of the voice-over in the video:“Am I a bad person?Tell me. Am I?I’m…
Godrej Cinthol, ITC Fiama, and a little less water!
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…
Kya baat kar rahe ho, OYO?
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…
Did you think it through, Bombae?
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…