Jomaatho
The new Zomato ad may generally seem like a severe stretch and massively pointless. After all, who really cares how Zomato is pronounced as long as we get what we want, on time? But, like all good campaigns, the Zomato campaign seems…
Paid post
I had tweeted a positive experience with Urban Company over the weekend (on April 1, no less!) and two of the replies made me pause and think a bit harder. For context, this was my first interaction with Urban Company. I had…
The Ketchup Fraud. Perhaps a Rethink, Heinz?
One of the things you may notice in most smaller Indian restaurants is how they optimize the handwash experience to manage costs better. At the washbasin, there is usually a handwash dispenser, and this tends to be a Dettol or Lifebuoy dispenser,…
The Kids Are All Right
I saw the new ad for ITC Classmate Hook Ball Pen only after Eularie Saldanha wrote about it in Campaign India. The title of the piece went, “Does Classmate want school kids to mate?”. Now, having read only that preposterous title, I…
Internal logic, or the lack of it, in advertising
Advertising is an awkward combination of fiction and non-fiction. To be interesting, it needs to use fictional elements that lead to suspension of disbelief on the part of the viewers. So, when Axe shows that women get magnetically attracted to the scrawny…
IPL vs. IPL
For the first time in the history of IPL (since 2008), we have two competing ad campaigns to entice us to consume the tournament in two different ways! This need did not arise till 2022 because the rights for both TV and…
Women’s Day 2023: Ford vs. Mercedes
Two Women’s Day 2023 campaigns by automobile companies that stood out for me, for vastly different reasons: Ford and Mercedes. Ford’s campaign, by the agency VMLY&R, was something of a crowd favorite, given the number of people I noticed sharing it on…