Categories General
Get Suckered by Horoscopes – Barnum Effect
Read the horoscope in the newspaper today.
It’s surprisingly accurate.
Sucker!
We all know that horoscopes are written for the masses, but I can’t help but fe…
Hopping on the Bandwagon – Herd Mentality
I was watching Scam 1992 – the web series on Harshad Mehta. Self-anointed Big Bull. What surprised me was that with just a rumour that Mehta was picking up a share, the rest of th…
Categories Marketing
Charm Pricing – The Logic of Bata Prices
Charm pricing is an anchoring bias that uses an odd number - usually nine - to show buyers perceived value and persuade them to buy.
For example, at Bata, for a product, …
Iconic Ads: Ek Anek Aur Ekta – Unity in Diversity
In 1974 — Ek Anek Aur Ekta (One, Many & Unity), a 7-minute animation film was released. It was written & co-directed by Vijaya Mulay - documentarian, film historian, educa…
Why we like the 1st Piece of Information?- Anchoring Bias
I saw online that a TV priced at Rs. 60,000. I went shopping at a local electronics store that offered it for Rs 59,000, which I happily accepted. Except that another dealer was s…
Obsession With Self – Selfitis
Taylor Swift maintains her edge on Instagram in the frame after frame to the approval of her millions of followers.
Kim Kardashian has published “Selfish,” a bestselling book o…
Categories Advertising
Iconic Ads: Classroom – Mentos
For years, funny & smart Mentos commercials were not missed because they advertised what the product could (albeit tongue-in-cheek) do, not the product itself.
Worldwide, M…
Categories Advertising
Blurring the Lines between Reality and Fantasy
Anna is the Snap Queen
She has 1000s of followers.
She takes 30 selfies a day.
The average number of likes is 400.
She loves the popularity.
For the Snapchat filter…
Categories General
Menstruation is Red, not Blue!
The Pantone Color Institute partnered with INTIMINA to bring the custom Pantone Red colour for menstruation. Described as "a true red that represents a constant flow", it was crea…
Categories General
All Study and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
Edutech companies have been capitalizing on the psyche of the Indian parent. Most parents expect their kids to be the next Brin or Page. For them, education (not learning) is most…
Categories General
The Internet Cloud is Clouded
In Apr 2019 "Despacito" became the 1st video to hit a billion views on YouTube.
Grim truth- it consumed as much electricity as 40,000 U.S. homes use yearly
Each search, clic…
Categories Business
Visionaries Make Mistakes…Nobody is Perfect!
Steve Jobs, Reed Hastings, Jack Welch, Ratan Tata, Kishore Biyani, V G Siddhartha
Each of these visionaries was not perfect. They made missteps. Some got lucky, some were not.
…
Categories Advertising
Iconic Ads: Royal Stag – Make It Large
Royal Stag has been one of the most interesting stories of my career in advertising. It was the early 2000s, and I was working at Ogilvy’s Delhi office. My art partner at that tim…
Categories General
Respect People The Way You Want To Be Respected
15 years ago, I was interviewing for roles in 2 companies.
Case 1
I was meeting a CXO of a large retail chain. The CXO made me wait for 3 hours post the time of appointment.…