Dense commentary on social media, PR, marketing, advertising and branding.
Kumar Mangalam Birla is one of the few billionaire industrialists in India who is yet to join any social media platform officially. He doesn’t even have a LinkedIn profile (not that he needs one anyway), so forget Twitter or Instagram. But his…
This post contains some spoilers about certain films like Knives Out, Vikram Vedha, Petta, Dhoom, etc. Back in July 2020, I had written about brands’ attempt to control how their products are showcased in movies, TV shows, and pop culture, in general….
Back in the mid-2000s, the Tamil Nadu-based Gingelly Oil brand Idhayam unleashed an extensive multimedia campaign for something relatively unknown till then – Oil Pulling. Oil pulling, a procedure mentioned in the Ayurvedic text Charaka Samhita under names like Kavala or Gandusha,…
Tamil newspaper (Dinathanthi). Tamil headline and Tamil campaign name (Pudhiya Aarambham). Hindi newspaper (Navbharat Times). Hindi headline and Hindi campaign name (Nayi Shuruaat). English newspaper editions of Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata (The Times of India). Hinglish headline and Hindi campaign name written…
Three ads from October, November, and December 2020. October 2020: The agency Cheil India, for their client MG Motors’ Gloster. (October 28)/November 2020: The agency Saatchi & Saatchi Australia, for their client Toyota (Hilux). December 2020: The agency Publicis United States, for…
I started by admiring this idea by Ogilvy Singapore, for their client Furry’s Kitchen, a Singapore-based dog food brand. The idea, as demonstrated, is interesting. The insight they use is the (supposed) perception that food for dogs tastes unpleasant and is made…
UPDATE: Added the 2021, 2022 and 2023 ads by Staatsloterij, both made by the same agency, TBWA\NEBOKO, at the end of this post. The Supreme Court of Netherlands ruled in January 2015 that the Dutch national lottery, Staatsloterij, deceived the public between…