Dense commentary on social media, PR, marketing, advertising and branding.
Alcohol brands have always done ‘Drink Responsibly’ campaigns. Despite the fact that it flies against the consumption of those products. Their aim is to maximize consumption, but they know that it should not be at the detriment of the user. A most…
Having tracked plagiarism in music since the late 90s (, though defunct, and I did a 42-weeks series on the topic for Filmcompanion, called Carbon Copy), I have always been interested—and fascinated by similarity of ideas in all forms of art. Hence,…
I really loved this campaign for BIC pens, by VMLY&R, Sao Paulo, Brazil. I recall Flair using the ‘longest writing pens’ plank to talk about how long the pen lasts, using ‘Writes upto 10,000 meters’ as a context for us to understand…
Remember what happened on November 8, 2016? Of course, you do! Remember November 9, 2016? You may, or may not, but Vijay Shekhar Sharma surely would. That was the day Paytm took out splashy front page ads thanking the Indian Prime Minister…
On June 24th, Priyanka Chopra shared a video on Instagram (besides Twitter), along with a lengthy note endorsing American skincare brand Obagi. What was conspicuously missing is a disclosure that it was a paid promotion. Priyanka could still be Indian (NRI? I…
I came across two nostalgic reminiscences recently that offer a lot to think about and learn from. The first one was by none other than Bill Gates. At an event recently hosted for founders by the venture firm Village Global, one of…
The new Fogg ads that sell ‘Perfume ka top-up’ offers an interesting case study in positioning. There is no doubt that Fogg shook up the deo/perfume market in India with a value-based positioning of ‘no gas perfumes’. It was the equivalent of…