Offline meeting and handwriting
Before March 2020, I had Skype on my Mac, but hardly ever used it. I used to use Zoom for work calls between 2016/17 and 2018 because one of my clients at Ogilvy (IBM) used to have conference calls via Zoom. I…
Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Thums Up, Patanjali
All the 3 big Cola brands in India—Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Thums Up—released new TVCs in December 2020. Pepsi – December 17, 2020, by Wunderman Thompson. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Pepsi India (@pepsiindia) Coca-Cola – December 24, 2020,…
Kumar Mangalam Birla’s social media trial-run
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…
Vijay, Vijay Sethupathi, Master and Apple
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….
Colgate and Dabur join Idhayam in pulling Indians to oil pulling!
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,…
My top posts in 2020
A customary annual round-up! This is also the only time I seriously look at the post views using Google Analytics. Looking back, WordPress informs me that I have written 256 posts in 2020. My usual target is 1 post per weekday and…
A slice of Indian history on a board game!
I stumbled upon the ‘Bharata 600 BC’ board game through an article in the Hindu Metroplus day-before-yesterday. The game is pricey, at Rs. 3,800, but beyond the price I was astounded by the detailing and design of the game! The first thing…