Dense commentary on social media, PR, marketing, advertising and branding.
All through the 1980s and 1990s, as I grew up in assorted cities like Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, Trichy, Coimbatore, and Salem (since my dad was in a transferable job – a bank), I used to observe a peculiar obsession of my dad –…
I’m not a regular consumer of chocolates, but I’m most definitely interested in the business of marketing chocolates. In the process of that interest, I do try and sample most new products in the market. When I recently read that Cadbury’s is…
This post is a response to Shivaji Dasgupta’s article in BestMediaInfo, titled, “Is tokenism the latest variant of Dairy Milk?“. Let me summarize Shivaji’s arguments (but please do read the full article before reading my response).1. The new Cadbury’s Dairy Milk ad…
When I mention ‘children’ and ‘vegetables’, most parents inherently know that I’m talking about sworn rivals 🙂 My daughter makes a fuss for brinjal but manages to eat most other vegetables, while my son makes a fuss for drumstick but is generally…
Actor Ajay Devgn recreates his iconic introductory scene from his debut, Phool Aur Kaante in a recent ad for Mahindra Furio trucks. I had recently written about Mahindra Furio trucks in a different context. A lot of people have commented about Devgn’s…
A fairly unlikely product category that seems totally obsessed with using stars (from films and sports) in its advertising campaigns is TMT Steel rods. The consistency with which assorted brands that manufacture TMT bars sign up (mostly) male film heroes and use…
I had written about the tiny billboards trend in July. On a similar note, there seems to be an interesting trend in billboards using shadows to tell a story. The ingredients are – billboard, creativity, and shadows that are caused either by…