Dense commentary on social media, PR, marketing, advertising and branding.
Director Rian Johnson, known for the science-fiction thriller Looper (2012), Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) and the murder-mystery Knives Out (2019), made a startling revelation oh-so-casually earlier this year during an interactive feature he was doing for Vanity Fair magazine. He…
Imagine: You try to enter a departmental store. Before you enter, they tell you, right at the gate, that to enter the shampoo section even to window shop and check out the options and prices, you’d need to give your phone number…
Yesterday’s Times of India has a pan-India front-page advertising campaign by Hero. The Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai editions of the ad has the headline “Bold ka naya andaaz” on the front-page, and “The icon reimagined” as the headline in page 2. The…
Back in 2018, I had written about former MTV VJ . His content was far removed from other influencer-led branded content mainly because it was made adhering to his brand’s familiar narrative and not the brand’s narrative. The difference is enormous –…
When Flipkart first launched the now-popular kids-as-adult ad films, the year was 2011! The first ad came on the back of a fairly unsuccessful debut ad campaign that was indulgently shot in South Africa. More on the (from Flipkart’s own website: Flipkart…
I’m a Mac user. I love the Mac experience, after having suffered Windows desktops and laptops almost all my life. (PS: I’m also an Android user when it comes to phones. I cannot stand the iPhone). But one thing I have always…
When Pepsico Lay’s , to celebrate the efforts of farmers, factory workers, truck drivers, distributors, sales force, retailers, and delivery executive, it made sense. Their TVC, though, seemed more focused on showcasing the Lay’s brand (understandably) than all those people. Now, !…