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Wednesday, November 26, 2025
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Vigyapanti

Fireworks and lights, but no creative spark. Brand campaigns continue to play safe on Diwali

PR and communications professional Dilip Cherian said Diwali ads are often kept short because the screen time is costly, making brands wary of going all out.

ChatGPT’s no-makeup makeup look. That’s what its first ad is going for

Crafted by OpenAI’s in-house team with the agency Isle of Any and director Miles Jay, the ads are minimal and relatable. They capture ‘the everyday magic’ of using ChatGPT.

Hero MotoCorp’s SS Rajamouli ad shows it wants to change how scooters are advertised

Scooters in India are often marketed through practicality tropes, but Hero MotoCorp chose to narrate its pitch with not just demonstration but also dramatisation.

Airtel, boAt, D’YAVOL—Bads of Bollywood is a B-school in marketing & promotion

Bads of Bollywood blurred lines between brand collaborations, digital platforms, and live events, making the buzz impossible to ignore.

Airtel is ditching long TV ads for catchy Instagram reels. It knows what works

Airtel tapped into nostalgia by featuring actors Neena Gupta and Ashish Vidyarthi, but gave it a modern twist with a script tailored for Gen Z, smartly bridging the gap between two generations.

Flipkart’s Big Billion Days campaign is the festive season’s best. RD Sharma stars in it

Flipkart's Big Billion Days 2025 campaign has been conceptualised by Talented ad agency and directed by Anant Sharma. It's a clever and unexpected marketing move.

Anurag Kashyap, Samay Raina’s Bold Care campaign signals a shift in Indian condom advertising

Advertising condoms in India has long been a challenging task, with brands like Manforce and Skore having to tiptoe around cultural sensitivities.

Happydent’s new ad sparkles with nostalgia, dazzling smiles—and civic sense

The new Happydent campaign, Chamking Gum: Chamka Muskaan, Jagmag Jahaan, manages to recapture the charm of the original, which had won several awards.

Fevikwik is the latest Indian brand to use AI in ads. It has no recall value

The ad combines Fevikwik’s core value of ‘fixing things’, fun and creativity and an AI tool, but instead of a smooth cocktail, we're left with an indiscernible aftertaste.

Tata Tea’s Independence Day campaign loses its way. Sounds like iconic Madhya Pradesh ad

The rhyming and music pairing in the ad feels forced. Singer Piyush Mishra has lent his voice to the commercial, but his magic gets overpowered by subpar writing.

On Camera

Labour Codes to QCO—Modi’s third term looks more open to economic reforms

The last 17 months have seen a gradual deferment of and pushback against schemes that are protectionist by nature.

Vehicles, TVs, mobile phones—PM EAC report shows rural India is catching up with urban consumers

Rural ownership of motor vehicles jumped from 19 percent in 2011-2012 to 59 percent in 2023-2024, while urban rose from 40 percent to 68 percent during the same time period, study by two members of PM-EAC says.

General secrets from frozen peaks: A Kargil veteran reveals what politically correct writers left out

At the Jindal Literature Festival, Maj Gen (Retd) Lakhwinder Singh reveals secrets from 25 years ago, speaking about the decision that outwitted Musharraf and changed the course of the war. 

A tribute to Tejas. India’s delay culture is the real enemy in the skies

It is a brilliant, reasonably priced, and mostly homemade aircraft with a stellar safety record; only two crashes in 24 years since its first flight. But its crash is a moment of introspection.