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Time of India
7 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
The longevity game
HighlightsCannes Lions 2025 has introduced a new sub-category for Long-Term Brand Platforms to celebrate brands that demonstrate sustained effectiveness in building equity and loyalty through creative communication over a minimum of three years. Industry leaders highlighted enduring brand platforms such as Dove's 'Real Beauty' and Nike's 'Just Do It', which have maintained relevance and cultural significance through continuous innovation and alignment with evolving societal conversations. The article emphasises the importance of long-term brand strategies, showcasing examples like L'Oréal's 'Because You're Worth It' and Mastercard's 'Priceless', which have created emotional connections and significant cultural impact over decades. At a time when most campaigns vanish with a scroll, Cannes Lions 2025 is placing a spotlight on what endures. It recently announced a new sub-category — Long-Term Brand Platforms — to recognise platforms that show long-term effectiveness in building brand equity, fostering loyalty and delivering business results through continuous, creative communication. To qualify, brands must have been in the market for three years. They must show three or more distinct campaigns as part of an overarching brand strategy . What are some ideas that have stayed beyond the buzz (and CMO tenures)? That have transcended media formats and become a part of culture? We asked industry leaders to name some 'brand platforms' they believe exemplify long-term thinking — creatively, strategically, culturally. Rohan Mehta, CEO, FCB Kinnect Global: In advertising, fame can fade fast. But platforms that build brand equity over time, that's legacy. Dove's 'Real Beauty' platform has endured because it taps into a timeless truth: The gap between self-perception and societal beauty standards. The platform has been responsive to evolving conversations, from body positivity to digital distortion. From 'Reverse Selfie' to 'Detox Your Feed', Dove has kept the work real, emotionally resonant and socially progressive. Nike's 'Just Do It' is one of the longest-running platforms in marketing history, staying relevant through reinvention. 'Dream Crazy' proved it could still challenge and lead —spotlighting athletes who rewrote norms. From [Colin] Kaepernick to kids with prosthetics, each story made 'Just Do It' feel urgent again, for a new generation, in a new world. India: HDFC Bank's 'Vigil Aunty' — a platform we've built — became a cultural utility. Fraud prevention isn't a glamorous brief, yet the platform made cybersecurity street-smart and WhatsApp-forwardable. Overall, these platforms have endured by adding new meaning every year. That's what brand equity looks like when it's earned, not engineered. John Thangaraj, Chief strategy officer, creative and media, Dentsu India Global: Michelob Ultra, a premium American beer brand, that has long been positioned around drinkability with the tagline: 'It's only worth it if you enjoy it'. 'Enjoyment' as space for a beer brand might sound generic — until you see the jaw-dropping work they've put out year after year. Rooted in sport, they have activated everything from the NBA and F1 to tennis. But what makes them a shoo-in at Cannes is how they've done it — using cutting-edge tech to create sporting spectacles that are catnip for award juries. Think McEnroe vs McEnroe, Dreamcaster and my personal favourite, Lap of Legends. India: As cliched as it may sound, it would be Surf's 'Daag Achhe Hain'. In two odd decades, it's become the poster child for culture-led creative consistency. 'Daag Achhe Hain'/ 'Dirt Is Good' has been rendered globally in many ways, yet remains instantly recognisable, which is what makes it so powerful. Their recent 'Guess Who Won' campaign marked a bold shift into serious sport — and it's well worth a look. Satbir Singh, Founder, Global: In an age when most brand campaigns last a mere thumb swipe, some of the world's most iconic brands built themselves on long-lasting platforms. The undisputed heavyweight champion is, of course, Nike's 'Just Do It', running well into four decades. 'Real Beauty' by Dove also comes to mind. McDonald's 'I'm Lovin' It' is another. All these campaigns not only mirrored emerging culture, but created a lot of it. They're part of folklore. India: Fevicol and Cadbury spring to mind. Brand managers and ad execs worldwide have envied these, wishing they could create something this long-lasting. Having worked on Incredible India and Red FM's 'Bajaate Raho!' (both going strong after decades), I'm glad Cannes created this category, especially at a time when many brands are happy settling for 200 LinkedIn likes instead of creating something lasting. Jitender Dabas, CEO, Cheil X Global: It has to be L'Oréal's 'Because You're Worth It'. It's timeless, universal and rooted in a powerful emotional truth. It didn't just sell beauty — it sold self-worth. At a time when advertising spoke to women from a male lens, it handed the microphone back. Over five decades, it's evolved without losing its core, enabling premium positioning, inspiring diverse storytelling and building one of the most enduring emotional bonds in beauty. India: I'd pick Thums Up's 'Taste the Thunder'. It may not always get the same applause as more purpose-driven work, but it's a masterclass in sharp, consistent brand building. It didn't chase global cool — it stayed rooted in the Indian intensity. It has driven business impact. It elevates the product truth and lends itself to inspiring story telling. Vikram Pandey, CCO, Leo South Asia Global: This new sub-category was long overdue. In a world increasingly obsessed with short-term impact and real-time metrics, it's important to pause and recognise the brands that have built more than just equity — they have earned trust, relevance and even created movements. Dove is a textbook example. With its 'Real Beauty' platform launched in 2004, Dove didn't just advertise differently — it redefined the conversation around beauty. What's remarkable is how the brand has managed to evolve the idea without diluting its core purpose. India: Whisper has done something powerful with its long-standing efforts towards keeping girls in school. Be it 'Missing Chapter', which championed inclusion of menstrual education in school, or 'Early Period', which addressed changing period biology by preparing eight-year olds, Whisper has, over the years, balanced purpose with business effectiveness while building one of the biggest platforms to help girls in India complete their education. Brands that manage to move the conversation forward, year after year, show us the real power of sustained creativity. Sarvesh Raikar, President, Lowe Lintas Global: I love Geico's '15 minutes can save you 15%'. On the face of it, it doesn't even feel like a big strategic platform — but just an unusual use of statistic to make everyone relook at the category. It's provided some insanely good creative output over the years. Fresh and disruptive, time and again. It helped Geico become one of the giants in the segment and the line entrenched itself in America's pop culture. Now, what more can you ask for? India: Lifebuoy's handwashing education — 'Help A Child Reach 5' and 'H for Handwashing'. These have helped build the world's largest behaviour change programmes over years. Marketing guru David Aaker called it one of the best in the world. The campaign didn't just impart education, it built awareness around the importance of soap, which is critical for market expansion. It also forged public-private partnerships, secured government participation and brought home fame. While [the characters of] 'Gondappa' and 'Chamki' (Future Child) brought global attention on handwash-preventable deaths under the 'Help A Child Reach 5' umbrella, campaigns like 'H for Handwashing and [pygmy hippo] Moo Deng's 'resignation' evolved the platform to make handwashing an unforgettable habit. Shilpa Sinha, Chief strategy officer, APAC, McCann Worldgroup Global: Mastercard and McDonald's. For more than two decades, both brands have delivered business growth and cultural relevance through timeless platforms rooted in universal human truths and activated in timely, resonant ways. Mastercard's 'Priceless' campaign redefined value by championing moments, experiences, inclusion and human impact — exemplified by 'Where to Settle', which used data to provide life-changing support to displaced refugees. McDonald's 'I'm Lovin' It' remains strategically simple and emotionally compelling upholding feel-good moments, brought to life through contemporary moments today. 'Raise Your Arches' reaffirmed its enduring power through wordless and pure brand coded iconic simplicity.
Times
06-05-2025
- Automotive
- Times
Mark Zuckerberg doesn't understand how to build brands
'If only everything in life was as reliable as a Volkswagen', 'Heineken refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach' and 'Just Do It'. All big ideas that drew me to the advertising industry when I started in 1989. Ideas that leapt out and snagged in the memory. Ideas that inspired consistently powerful advertising campaigns and built lasting brands. They captured what those brands stood for (reliability, refreshment, action), creating distinctiveness, attracting customers and justifying price premiums. Take Levi's. Launching its 501 jeans in the UK, there was little to choose between them and rivals such as Lee and Wrangler, but when, to the strains of I Heard It Through the Grapevine, Nick Kamen unbuttoned his 501s in that famous launderette commercial, sales shot up
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Nike apologizes for using phrase associated with Holocaust in London Marathon ads
Nike's ad campaign for this month's London Marathon led to some major faith-related pushback. Spectators and social media users took issue with a billboard that said 'Never Again. Until Next Year,' arguing that Nike should have avoided the phrase 'Never Again,' which is generally associated with the Holocaust. 'Never Again is as iconic a phrase as Just Do It. Nike should know better,' wrote Bill Ackman, a prominent hedge fund manager, on X. In a follow-up post, Ackman said it's hard to imagine why no one at Nike raised concerns about the ad. 'I assume that this was unintentional, but it is hard to imagine that there was no one at Nike, on the marketing team, at their advertising firm, banner manufacture etc. who didn't know or who didn't think to Google the words 'Never again,'' he wrote. Similarly, Arsen Ostrovsky, a human rights lawyer, described the ad as 'in poor taste' in an X post. 'Seriously Nike? You posted this massive billboard in London for the Marathon. I don't believe for a second there was any ill malice, but please understand the concern with using the words 'Never Again', what they represent and why this was in poor taste,' he wrote. In a Monday statement to reporter Louis Keene of The Forward, Nike apologized for any harm it caused with the billboards. The company noted in its statement that the London Marathon ad campaign was built around phrases commonly used by runners. Another billboard in the series read 'Remember why you signed up for this.' 'The London billboards were part of a broader campaign titled 'Winning Isn't Comfortable,' built on runners' insights and designed to motivate runners to push past what they think is possible,' Nike's statement said. Although the Nike drama is unique, 'Never Again' has been used outside the context of the Holocaust before. For example, after the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, students used the hashtag #NeverAgain to promote protests in favor of gun control across the country, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The students, like Nike, faced pushback over their use of the phrase. 'For a second it felt like cultural appropriation, but I doubt the kids knew this or did it intentionally,' one Jewish woman observed on social media at the time, as the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported. The article noted that the phrase became associated with the Holocaust in the 1960s and 1970s. It was originally a call to armed resistance, but it's been transformed into a message of peace. The 'violent call for action was adapted by American Jewish establishment groups and Holocaust commemoration institutions as a call for peace, tolerance and heeding the warning signs of genocide,' per Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The London Marathon took place on Sunday. Sabastian Sawe of Kenya won the men's race in 2:02:27. according to The Associated Press. Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia won the women's race in 2:15:50.
The National
28-04-2025
- The National
As a senior police officer I saw first hand how the war on drugs fails
Now, every institution feels the need to brand itself with a glib, inspiring catchphrase. Nike says Just Do It. BMW promises The Ultimate Driving Machine. Even we in the police have our own: Keeping People Safe. It's etched on the sides of patrol cars and echoed in briefings. Some vehicles even boast a slightly tweaked version – Keeping Communities Safe – as if that changes the reality on the ground. But is it true? Or is it just another sound bite crafted by comms departments and PR consultants? READ MORE: Is Westminster stopping Scotland from tackling the drugs death crisis? A new report lays bare a disturbing truth, one with particular weight here in Scotland. It reveals a cruel irony – when police successfully disrupt drug supply chains, more people die. Seizing heroin, dismantling county lines operations, jailing mid-level dealers – these are still branded as 'wins.' But the aftermath tells a darker story. Users, cut off from familiar sources, turn to the streets, to the unknown, to the dangerous. And they die. In communities such as Glasgow and Dundee, and throughout parts of the Highlands and islands, drug-related deaths have reached catastrophic levels. Scotland has one of the highest drug death rates in Europe. That isn't just a grim statistic, it's a national shame. It's a stain on our conscience. Or should be. We must confront an uncomfortable reality: We're not keeping people safe. We're sending a fire engine to douse the flames while pouring petrol on the blaze. When we ramp up the so-called War on Drugs, the market doesn't vanish. It mutates. Violence erupts. Turf wars escalate. Vulnerable users are forced to navigate a shifting and deadly underground economy, one increasingly filled with synthetic poisons and unpredictable cutting agents. Dealers adapt faster than we can react, flooding communities with ever more lethal products. And while we chase headlines, people die in alleyways, closes, public toilets. Families bury their loved ones and grieve in silence, again and again. This isn't what we signed up for. Most officers don't join the force to feed a policy that kills the very people we're sworn to protect. We sign up to serve. To stand between harm and the public. But the system now demands we play a part in something broken, a relentless cycle of raids, seizures, and arrests that achieves nothing except body counts. IF we truly mean Keeping People Safe, we need to ask: safe from what? From drugs? From crime? From grief? Right now, they're not safe from any of it. The solution doesn't lie in tougher sentences or bigger hauls. We've tried that. It failed. The answer lies in a public health approach, rooted not in punishment but in compassion, evidence and common sense. We need to expand safe consumption spaces, such as the long-delayed but now operational pilot in Glasgow. We must flood the streets not with raids but with naloxone. We must back recovery services with real resources, not lip service. And, above all, we must end the criminalisation of addiction. Addiction is an illness, not a moral failing. You can't arrest your way out of a health crisis. We stand at a crossroads. One road continues this tired, tragic pantomime of punishment and PR. The other leads to reform. To regulation. To treating drug use for what it really is – a complex public health issue requiring bold, grown-up decisions. READ MORE: The illegal drugs trade affects the lives of everyone We have the power to choose. We can continue with the same course – more slogans, more bodies, more shame. Or we can change direction and begin to save lives. If Keeping People Safe is more than a motto, if it's a promise, then it's time to prove it. Simon McLean is a former serious crime and drugs squad officer who infiltrated crime gangs nationwide. He is a spokesperson for LEAP (Scotland) and co-host of the true crime podcast Crime Time Inc with former deputy chief constable Tom Wood. Both are published authors and outspoken advocates for evidence-based drug policy reform
USA Today
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Nike's newest \
Nike's newest "So Win" gear features Olympic gold medalist Sha'Carri Richardson — Recommendations are independently chosen by our editors. Purchases you make through the links below may earn us and our publishing partners a commission. Nike sees the rise in attention for women's sports, from the collective celebration of Simon Biles' Olympic gymnastics career, to the support of Sha'Carri Richardson and her own gold medal triumph, and the latest, Caitlin Clark's game-altering ascension to the WNBA. Now, with the launch of the "So Win" brand collection, they want you to rep your favorite female athletes and their iconic imagery. The launch first came with running tee's that say: "You can't win, so win" and Nike's classic "Just Do It" but surrounded by outstanding female athletes. Launches have also come from Caitlin Clark, A'ja Wilson, and Sabrina Ionescu. More designs from more athletes are still coming including USWNT icons Sophia Smith and Mallory Swanson and current college basketball stars JuJu Watkins and Paige Bueckers. Now you can snag Sha'Carri Richardson's personalized running tee, from the Olympic gold-medalist runner herself. The tee features her iconic manicure gripping a gold medal, which is fitting. The tee is made of 100 percent cotton, only comes on a black shirt, and retails for $45. Shop Sha'Carri Richardson "So Win" t-shirt What is the "So Win" brand collection from Nike? Nike launched the "So Win" brand collection with a Super Bowl commercial in early February. The collection celebrates the power of sport and the athlete who compete in them. It features an iconic roster from Nike, each with their own designs. It steps away, just a bit, from Nike's long-time slogan, 'Just Do It.' Instead, it focuses on athletes who are always told what they can and can't do, and even what they may or may not be capable of. It aligns Nike with the movement and rise of women's sports. The "So Win" campaign includes Jordan Chiles, Caitlin Clark, Sabrina Ionescu, A'ja Wilson, Sophia Wilson, and Sha'Carri Richardson. Who is Sha'Carri Richardson? Sha'Carri Richardson is a track and field athlete who competes in the 100 meter and 200 meter competitions. In 2023, Richardson became the U.S. national champion in the women's 100m dash at the 2023 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. She won gold in the 100m at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, and won gold as part of Team USA's women's 4 x 100 relay. Richardson was shrouded in controversy early in his track career after she had qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics. The Louisiana State University alumnae ran the 100-metre in 10.86 seconds, but later tested positive for cannabis, making her unable to compete in the Olympics. The Olympic gold medalist signed with Nike in 2019, the same year she became a professional runner. MORE NIKE SHOPPING: Shoes, jerseys and more inspired by basketball phenom A'ja Wilson Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.
