Protected: Turning the Page for The New Year

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When Fashion Goes Retail and Retail Goes Fashion

In India, organized retail is a fairly new phenomenon and it coexists with the traditional corner-shop or kirana store as it’s called here. Despite fears of the former destroying small mom and pop shops, the two have happily coexisted for a couple of decades now. That’s also because the Indian government didn’t allow large foreign… Continue reading When Fashion Goes Retail and Retail Goes Fashion

What Cultural Hibernation Can Feel Like

Years ago, I had written a blog post on how being out of work for so many years in the advertising industry in India felt like being in exile. In exile with my own thoughts and ideas on brands, besides all the other subjects I write about on my blog. From the Indian and global… Continue reading What Cultural Hibernation Can Feel Like

What To Expect from the Global Economy in 2024

We’re nearing the end of 2023, and it appears that most economies have managed to stave off a recession, except Germany, Austria, Poland and Sweden among advanced economies that might still close the year a little in the cold. Ireland too looks surprisingly weak in 2023, but not if you consider the previous two years… Continue reading What To Expect from the Global Economy in 2024

Advertising and Media in The New World

Recently, I wrote a piece here on my blog examining how much had really changed in the way consumers make their brand purchase decisions in today’s world. And I concluded that while plenty had changed in the technology dimension of advertising and marketing, consumers still make their brand choice decisions the way they always have.… Continue reading Advertising and Media in The New World

India State Elections 2023: It’s Raining Revdis!

It’s the old familiar theme when elections come around. And they have arrived at five states in India to elect new state assemblies. It’s a good time as any to review Prime Minister Modi’s phrase of revdi culture (culture of freebies) first used against the Aam Aadmi Party of Arvind Kejriwal to criticize his promise… Continue reading India State Elections 2023: It’s Raining Revdis!

Protected: Winding-Down-2023 Reading

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The Dangers of Supplanting Caste for Race

Finished reading the second book that my aged father gifted me in Goa for my birthday this year. I hadn’t heard of the author or any of her books, even though she is supposed to be a Pulitzer Prize winner. Right from the start, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson struck me… Continue reading The Dangers of Supplanting Caste for Race

What a Bonanza of Cricket and Advertising!

The ICC ODI Cricket World Cup could not have come to India at a more opportune time. Just when the country’s economy is weathering the global slowdown and actually growing at a decent clip, it could do with a booster dose of high energy sporting action and consumption. Just when beleaguered Disney Star is recovering… Continue reading What a Bonanza of Cricket and Advertising!

Stalemate or Larger Regional War in the Middle East?

October 2023 began with all the omens of a Middle East conflict once again, when Hamas launched a series of rocket attacks on Israel and Israel responded in its typical fashion. Everyone in media wondered how Israel could be caught so off-guard and about the failure of its world-renowned intelligence. This only adds to the… Continue reading Stalemate or Larger Regional War in the Middle East?