Category: Uncategorized
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No PPT Decembers.
Pavlov’s dog was conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell. It is not natural for dogs to associate sound of a bell with food.But it can be CONDITIONED to do so. ___ Similarly, its not natural for humans to make PPTs when confronted with an interesting problem to solve. But it seems so […]
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2021. The Year of Humanity’s Burn Out.
One of the defining experiences of the pandemic has been the constant anxiety grating at our conscience, not letting us recharge completely – the burnout. The overwhelmed medical fraternity experienced it. So did the migrant workers orphaned from the mai-baap sarkaar. The anxious and overworked security guard felt it. So did the digital worker straining […]
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“Insights” as revelations of hidden optionalities
As the world moves faster and drags the advertising industry along with it, the concept of ‘insight’, which resolutely stood at the centre of the advertising industry for long, is appearing blurred. Often, we find ourselves in meeting rooms sharing a scratch of the head, “what’s an insight, anyways?”. Here’s my take. What is an […]
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2+2: Greenwashing
I felt confused recently when a recent Mastercard campaign elicited positive response from a lot of industry veterans on Linkedin. To me, it was quite clearly a greenwashing campaign. I felt that either I am misunderstanding something or people are used to seeing this campaign in a certain way – “Admire me for my cleverness. […]
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Optionality Framework: A Brand Strategy Framework for a World in Flux.
Note: This article adapts NN Taleb’s idea about ‘optionality’ from his excellent book ‘ Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder‘; and uses research from Richard Bulliet’s book The Camel and the Wheel. Camel or a car? Can you imagine a day when everyone around you stops using automobiles and instead starts riding camel? It turns […]
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Chasing the abyss
A political spokesperson cites a meme to target his opponent. The point isn’t about the meme or the target. The point is the callousness, the sheer intellectual ‘fuck you’ of getting away with nonsense on prime time TV. The anchor, the guest intellectual and presumably the audience react with stiff lips, a manufactured performance of […]
Truth About Branding 