Media International

When can advertisers use stereotypes to their benefit?

These questions came into sharp focus recently in India with controversy swirling around a couple of drink ads that used a Africans-as-primitive-tribals-beating-drums formula to try and eke some humour out of their communication. In both cases, the use of race was not central to the brand, but a device used to signal a lack of… Read more »

The Bhopal tragedy: 25 years old and still relevant

It took 25 years after the worst industrial accident in the world where more than 20000 people died and many times that number suffered lifelong ailments because of the gas leakage, to get a verdict against 7 officers of the erstwhile Union Carbide Company and it took them a few hours to get freed on… Read more »

Media industry needs to learn that frivolity negates respect

The Indian advertising industry is abuzz. Allegations about agencies voting for themselves are flying thick and fast and the media is having a lot of fun. Of course, this is not a new phenomenon. For the last few years, the results of India’s annual advertising festival, Goafest, have been regularly leaked by some high-placed insider… Read more »

Din over Rin could herald new wave of ‘controversy brands’

The ad in question could have been made in 1983, since it features two housewives facing off against each with the Rin homemaker winning the battle of ‘Whose Child Wears The Whitest’ and offers nothing remotely new by way of proposition, evidence or storytelling technique. And yet it has evoked great interest in the media,… Read more »