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All women need to strip off….

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..the biases ..the stereotypes ..the perceptions ..the others in you No this is not a note on pornographic innuendoes, neither is it a set of tips to succeed in an MCP world. This is a collection of a little reflection, inspired by the monotony of over empathizing celebrations of Women’s day! Have you ever wondered - Why is Pink Panther a comedy and Black Panther an action hero film? Why is it that in spite of more movies in Bollywood now with lady protagonists, the Superhits – the highest grosers are still the ones that drive machismo? Why does our behavior towards women in our lives get determined by the lunar calendar? Is respect for women seasonal? Right from childhood to whatever you might term as “later stage of life” – women go through stereotypes. Some use hashtags to summarize their #MeToos, while others lock themselves in a room, praying for a better afterlife or silently waiting for the Phoenix to get up and change the world! Some empathize with their co-sufferer
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The day of Depression and Desperation – via Baba Valentine

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It is that day of the year when you can only see one color – the color that symbolizes aggression as well as good luck at the same time! Not sure which one works for today, but given the sentiment, you would most likely be switching between being skeptical, judgemental, depressed and (supposedly, like me) indifferent! This is a day when all your stereotypes come out and collaborate with your insecurities! A day – when the date is celebrated with implicit connotations of the so-called four-letter word, which few understand. A day when Love becomes a cryptocurrency – everyone talks about it, everyone wants a piece of it and hear stories about how everyone else apart from them has it but they don’t – but almost everyone is clueless about what exactly it is! The word Love is confusing, as I believe, in most of my sociological intellectualization, that it is a packaged version of Lust when one moves from liking someone to needing something more! But then there is a nice explanation of
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Cranberrified in US - for True Elements

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Traveling to the other side of the world is a rarity when you marry yourself into building an unknown dream, or what some people call, “startup”. Till a few months back, getting noticed by research companies as a brand representing a category was a matter of pride (the one that makes you take a deep breath with a smile!). But when we were invited by the Cranberry Marketing Committee (CMC) of United States, to represent India for our leadership in cranberries in the country, it was a longer breath and a wider smile - a business trip to the United States to represent True Elements! Wow, that was a first for us! Sreejith got this opportunity and like a true partner, he passed on the itinerary to me, pouring out his altruism to the core! Maybe he was worried he might end up doing a lot of shopping there! Invited through Technopak , the trip entailed understanding cranberries. Much to my guilt of so much spending by the invitees, we had prepared a lot of ideas and plans around cr
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Parachute - Thoda Love Jatao, Tel Lagao

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According to popular language, an Indian Head Massage , as its called, helps release stress accumulating in the tissues, muscles and joints of the head, neck and shoulders. It is best done using Coconut Oil. What is the first brand that comes to mind for Coconut Oil? Did you just imagine a blue bottle? Now, What if you demand love through a head massage? And I am not alluding to the south-east asian nation which has been typecasted as the best combination of love and massage! This one is closer home and in a far cleaner context. Relationships that are lost in our busy lives - a touch of a Head Massage takes it away. Parachute's "Thoda Love Jatao" is being advertised heavily on YouTube. Unlikely that you would have missed it if you would have opened YouTube today! Here is a summary of the context around the campaign as per its website , Parachute Advansed - Your sister called but you were too busy & couldn’t talk. Dinner with family is more about wh
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(Digital) Wheels on the Bus(-iness) Go Round and Round..Round and Round

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Almost every youngster I have met looking at the next big thing wants to work in Digital Marketing. Some of them, just by posting few Facebook posts, consider themselves to be the Digital doppelganger of Philip Kotler (or maybe Byron Sharp now!) Digital is largely experimental and it is still not mainstream - every brand believes that Digital is the next big thing - the best way to connect with millennials is to catch them online. However, in 2012, Ehrenburg-Bass Institute, based on a study of 200 brands on Facebook,   found that less than 0.5% of fans actually engaged with a brand (that is, undertook meaningful activity, including comment and share, rather than just ‘Like’).  It also found that Facebook fans were skewed towards heavy buyers, and that purchase frequency didn’t increase after someone became a fan. Again, for the uninitiated, Digital is not the same as Social Media. Have hardly met 'neo-experts' who talk beyond Social Media and SEO while re-enforcing
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Expand your (Social) Circle of Life - and Live Longer!

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What if someone gave away the secret of living for more than 100 years to you? Would you share it with your friends?  Released today at TED talks, Susan Pinker , a Developmental psychologist, reveals how in-person social interactions are not only necessary for human happiness but also could be a key to health and longevity. She gives reference of a Village in Italy (Sardinia) and shares the key reasons that drive longevity in men and women. According to her, two of the biggest reasons (emphasis on close personal relationships and face-to-face interactions) are summarized below - First, your close relationships. These are the people that you can call on for a loan if you need money suddenly, who will call the doctor if you're not feeling well or who will take you to the hospital, or who will sit with you if you're having an existential crisis, if you're in despair. Those people, that little clutch of people are a strong predictor, if you have them, of how long you&#
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Marketing India to Indians - Get Free from 'Freedom Sale'!

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Playing the old classic patriotic songs with every flag hoisting, the emerging innovative combination of saffron, white and greens represented in our attire (and not necessarily with a flag), and the varying degrees of pride while looking at the national flag - all this along with celebrating a mid-week national holiday with high laziness quotient!  - That is how 15th August passes with most of us every year! (I am excluding the NRIs from this lot, as the " NR but I " bit in them comes out very strongly today). Advertisers try to be topical around independence day - either through s(t)ale discounts or through innovative emotive connects. Some of the key words I noticed in most of the ads include Freedom - the quintessential term without which the ad is seemingly irrelevant, Tri color representation Offers - from 15% to 2017/- only Independence day Gandhi ji  On the other hand, we talk about Freedom from the societal aspects of our country, where we take
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