Karthik 🇮🇳
@beastoftraal • 92,208 subscribers
Communications strategy consultant (see pinned tweet). Connect with me for corporate workshops on personal branding. No paid posts - my words are not for sale.
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'Men will be men' with a wonderful twist! For the Swiss retailer Migros, agency Thjnk Zürich takes a refreshingly unconventional approach to showcasing fresh produce. The most predictable route would have been to feature two mothers competing to pack the most imaginative, healthy lunchbox for their kids. But that trope is tired, and wouldn't have made a dent at all. In fact, if it were two mothers, the narrative would probably lean into them exchanging recipes and happily shopping at Migros together. Instead, by putting two dads in the arena, the ad unlocks a hilarious, hyper-competitive dynamic. What starts as a simple lunchbox comparison quickly spirals into an absurd arms race of food art with cucumber crocodiles and carrot race cars to an all-out gourmet standoff at a neighborhood barbecue. It’s the petty, silent game of oneupmanship between the dads that makes the ad memorable, all while seamlessly driving home the brand's message: they have the widest range of fresh produce to fuel any culinary ambition. #advertising #marketing #creativity
Karthik 🇮🇳71,445 Aufrufe • vor 6 Tagen
"Usne Tum Logon Ko Ch****a Banaya. Jaante Ho Kyun? Kyunki Tum Ch****e Ho. Dharam Ke Naam Par Ch****e Ban Gaye Tum Log. Aur Bante Rahoge. Tum Bante Rahoge. Tumhe Maarne Waala Har Woh Hindu Bante Rahega. Har Woh Aadmi Jiske Paas Kuch Nahi Karne Ko, Dharam Ke Naam Par Ch****a Bante Rahega."
Karthik 🇮🇳482,128 Aufrufe • vor 2 Monaten
Hahahahahaha... this is a brilliant way to use a celebrity in an ad 😂 Not only does not use Ranveer Singh (and Johnny Sins - 'Google' him!) in a totally unexpected (and hilarious) way using the much-derided Indian TV series trope, but it also makes the product category far more accessible to a wider set of people beyond it being used in hushed tones! Great job by Moonshot, the agency. #advertising #marketing #creative #creativity
Karthik 🇮🇳3,006,943 Aufrufe • vor 2 Jahren
A new ad that managed to make me teary-eyed! Watch it first before reading any further, to avoid spoilers. 1/2
Karthik 🇮🇳318,953 Aufrufe • vor 3 Monaten
If I say, 'Liril Soap' and 'Laaa la la la la', many people may start humming the classic Liril soap ad jingle. But the shocker is that the jingle was not original, but "inspired"! The bigger shocker was that the original jingle was also made for a lime-based soap just like HUL's Liril - Henkel's Fa! Henkel's Fa ad campaign in 1968-69 by the Düsseldorf-based agency Hubert Troost Werbeagentur (usually called Troost) featured the 'Laaa la la la la' song. It was composed by the German composer Klaus Doldinger. The jingle became so popular that a vinyl single of the track (Listen: was released in 1969 under the pseudonym Paul Nero Sounds (one of Doldinger’s aliases for his more commercial/pop-oriented output at the time), explicitly tied to the Fa commercial: "Paul Nero Sounds (Klaus Doldinger) - Wild Freshness (FA Commercial)". It appeared on compilations like Pop-Shopping: Juicy Music From German Commercials 1960-1975. Liril's (the soap itself inspired by Fa) first ad was released in 1974, in cinema theaters. It featured Air India stewardess Karen Lunel, and was made by the agency Lintas, and directed by Kailash Surendranath. The jingle was credited to Vanraj Bhatia (even though he simply added some Indian elements like Sitar, as an interlude, the actual melody was a direct lift from the Fa ad jingle by Klaus) and was sung by Preeti Desai. That two lime-based soaps, across 2 countries, have almost similar visual devices (shots of the soap interspersed with bikini-clad woman bathing) and identical music, is no coincidence, and is probably part of the larger ethos of that time in India when Hindi film music too heavily "borrowed" from foreign sources without any credit. I should know, because I created an entire website listing original songs against many, many Indian film songs: (many of the song links may be broken but you can always Google the titles and find new uploads on YouTube). The Fa ad plays first, followed by the Liril ad. #advertising #marketing
Karthik 🇮🇳130,020 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat
Such a badly made ad film, for a premium watch brand like Rado, and featuring stars like Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif! As you start watching it, observe the presence and absence (and changing hands, left to right) of the ring on Katrina's finger. Then, from 0:38 to 0:42, all I could do is a combination of LOL + cringe as it becomes completely apparent that the stars are not together in a shoot but were digitally (AI?) put together in a really bad way. The clumsy way the ad's makers have managed (or botched up) the 'eye contact' is both hilarious and sad. Couldn't the brand have spent at least a fraction of the fees paid to the two stars in getting a better agency to do a better edit where things are not so laughably silly? #advertising #marketing
Karthik 🇮🇳545,334 Aufrufe • vor 9 Monaten
This is perhaps THE BEST use of a celebrity in an ad I have seen in recent times. The line that leads to the contextual use of the celebrity is perfect too! And very, very funny in a self-aware way that the celebrity lands brilliantly! 😁 Superb writing by the agency Collective Creative Labs.
Karthik 🇮🇳40,501 Aufrufe • vor 21 Tagen
Dinshaw's new ad for its ice cream cone, featuring Vinod Kambli, by the agency Womb, left me dismayed. The narrative crux is the line "Jinko life mein thoda kam mila, unke liye thoda zyada". The subject of that "thoda kam mila" framing is a real, living person whose health struggles, public breakdowns and financial difficulties are well-documented and ongoing. Sure, many feel Kambli deserved more in life. But this ad film doesn't redeem that narrative. It harvests it to sell ice cream cones. The word "dildaari" (generosity) is doing particularly cynical work here. It's a loaded, noble word, implying big-heartedness, even grace. The agency's narrative applies it to the extra chocolate at the bottom of a cone!! The deflation is almost comic, and the asymmetry between the weight of the human story and the lightness of the product is utterly jarring. I can anticipate the counter: "Won't viewers empathise with Kambli? Won't younger audiences Google him and feel for him?" Perhaps. But there's a meaningful difference between empathy and sympathy. Empathy is feeling *with* someone ("I know what it's like to work hard and not get recognised"). Sympathy is feeling *for* someone ("Poor Kambli, he lost everything"). This ad pushes firmly toward sympathy, and then does this with it: 1. Kambli got less. 2. Poor Kambli. 3. Dinshaw's gives more. 4. Buy this cone. If a young person Googles Kambli and discovers he is currently battling neurological issues and financial distress, the ad's cheerful metaphor of an ice cream cone bringing him joy looks jarringly inadequate... like the brand is leveraging real-time vulnerability for a summer sale. Kambli was paid for this, yes. But the cruelest irony is that he may have needed the money, which makes the entire exercise more uncomfortable, not less. By choosing the "deserved more" arc, Dinshaw's and Womb lock him into a permanent state of failure. He isn't a collaborator in this story. He's the cautionary tale. I hope this ad doesn't normalise a template: find a fallen public figure, wrap their misfortune in warm language, sell something cheerful. #advertising #marketing
Karthik 🇮🇳78,690 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat
The same scene, across three languages: Revathi & Karthik, Mouna Raagam (Tamil, 1986) Neelam & Chunky Pandey, Kasak (Hindi, 1992) Prema & Shiva Rajkumar, Chandrodaya (Kannada, 1999) What monumental difference in staging, acting, and most importantly the power of background music (Ilayaraja, Rajesh Roshan, and Hamsalekha, respectively).
Karthik 🇮🇳758,694 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr
Thoroughly enjoyed this new ad for AVT tea, featuring Vijay Sethupathi and Rana Daggubati (agency: Turrino). It's a simple premise of the duo planning to have tea together and start exchanging notes on their favorite tea-drinking moments from their lives. Every one of their experience is divided by geography - Chennai vs. Hyderabad. Tamil vs. Telugu. But two things unite them. AVT tea, of course, is one of them, but it was the other unifying factor that charmed me effortlessly, considering the multilingual proficiency and state-agnostic (particular in these 2 states) popularity of the person. What/who is that? Watch the ad :)
Karthik 🇮🇳31,923 Aufrufe • vor 27 Tagen
BJP missed a great marketing opportunity in making Modi's meditation into an interactive event since they have already invested in such an impressive multi-camera set-up. They should have announced a 'Meditate with Modi' virtual event where they livestream the entire 45-hour meditation on Modi's YouTube channel and ask devotees (of Modi, that is) to join him in meditating (from the comfort of their own homes). Now, I hope BJP at least has the presence of mind to, a. Send the edited video as a nomnation for the best cinematography Oscar next year, and b. Release a 'Behind the scenes' video to showcase how impressive the camera work is.
Karthik 🇮🇳506,876 Aufrufe • vor 2 Jahren
Absolutely terrific use of a small, often unrecognized nuance in language to make a larger point for Mother's Day, by Philips India (agency: Magic Circle). Loved the way the point was made organically, using the generational gap in language and understanding. There are so many words like this that offer a gendered split leading to the tasks being seen as only one person's even though they are (and should be) shared responsibilities. 'Babysitting', for instance. It's a temporary (often paid) job, but when a father proudly says that he is 'babysitting' it implies he is looking at it as someone else's full-time responsibility and he is simply "helping" for the time being. Men saying, 'I allowed her to go', or women saying, 'He lets me work', is another example. These are words of 'permission' not a partnership. Women are often said to be 'managing' the house, which makes the men to 'living' in the house? And then the perennial advertising favorite that should stop: women portrayed as 'multi-taskers' or worse, 'superwomen'. The framing not only romanticizes exhaustion but also absolves the people around her from picking up the slack. That said, there are 2 points of minor counterpoints that came to my mind even as I was enjoying the ad. One is around the class blind-spot. We are in an era of the "10-minute househelp" offered so many VC-funded startups. When housework is often outsourced to paid domestic workers, the narrative of "everyone’s shared responsibility" becomes muddled because the labor is actually being performed by a third party from a different social class. The second blind-spot is around economics. The message of "democratizing the kitchen" through an airfryer only applies to those who can afford the gadget. For the vast majority, the "gendered gap" isn't solvable with an expensive (relatively) appliance because it's a mindset that is at play. #advertising #marketing #creativity
Karthik 🇮🇳30,498 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha 😂 Fantastic use of a popular Diwali 'meme' in its Diwali 2024 ad by Zomato! Hands down, the funniest Diwali ad (while also being apt for Zomato) so far. Conceived in-house (says a lot about the kind of talent that exists inside Zomato) and produced by Ryde Studios. #advertising #marketing #diwali #deepavali
Karthik 🇮🇳358,326 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr
Hahahahaha... shots fired at my favoritest Biryani place in Bengaluru by Nandhini Deluxe! I'm assuming the concept and writing is by Sachin 'Gommaboy' Kumar (who also features in the video along with Muskan Arora). I fully expect (and want) my favorite Biryani joint in Bengaluru (mentioned with a very, very sly twist in the end - wait for it) to respond in kind, with the same punch as their phenomenal biryani 😁 I have not considered trying biryani from Nandhini Deluxe at all so far, but after seeing this video, I just might give it a try. #advertising #marketing #influencer #creativity
Karthik 🇮🇳102,597 Aufrufe • vor 5 Monaten
