Brands
Soha Ali Khan joins P&G to help build a P&G Shiksha school in Kolkata
MUMBAI: Having impacted the lives of over 420, 000 children till date, P&G’s flagship Corporate Social Responsibility program P&G Shiksha continues to march forward with the motto ‘Padegha India, Badhega India. In its 10th year, P&G Shiksha makes the necessary infrastructure interventions by building and supporting schools across the country thereby giving children the access to education. Supporting this endeavour, Bollywood actress Soha Ali Khan, who has been associated with the P&G Shiksha initiative for many years, paid a visit to a P&G Shiksha School in Kolkata to help paint the school walls and complete the on-going construction activities at the school. P&G Shiksha’s infrastructure interventions are key to enabling access to education to children across the country. The actress turned teacher for the day, involved the children in some interactive learning by implementing several fun tactics. She also engaged them in a rapid fire round, on a wide range of subjects and was very impressed with the confidence, intelligence, wit and exuberance demonstrated by the P&G Shiksha children.
The actress also shared her vision of empowering under privileged children with access to education and together with P&G Shiksha urged consumers to make the simple brand choice and join the program’s drive by purchasing P&G products such as Tide, Ariel, Whisper, Pampers, Olay, Head &Shoulders, Pantene, Vicks, Gillette, Oral-B & AmbiPur. These purchases enable the company to channelize part of the sales proceeds towards building and supporting schools across the country.
In West Bengal alone, P&G Shiksha has improved the lives of nearly 5000 underprivileged children through quality education, by building and supporting over 15 schools. With the objective of improving the quality of education and encouraging more children to stay in school in Kolkata, P&G Shiksha delivers key infrastructure interventions that enables access to education and motivates children to learn every day. P&G Shiksha has also been instrumental in the change by equipping schools with necessary amenities from building classrooms to building toilets, thereby bringing down the dropout rate and improving the overall literacy rate in West Bengal.
Supporting this initiative, actress Soha Ali Khan said, “I have been associated with P&G Shiksha for many years now and today I feel proud and delighted to be a part of this initiative yet again. I truly believe that education is a basic right of every child and it is heartening to see a movement like P&G Shiksha facilitating education for underprivileged children and helping them realise their dreams and providing them a better standard of living. With 42% rural areas in India still not having access to primary schools and 30% of primary schools not having proper toilets; infrastructure is a key issue at schools across the country. I am thrilled that by painting the school walls today I have been able to play a small role in giving these children a bright and colourful future and ensuring they have access to a fully functional school! I encourage all of you to join the movement by making the simple brand choice of buying P&G products, as a part of the proceeds go towards building and supporting schools. Today, at the P&G Shiksha School, not only did I discover a teacher in me, but also had a lot of fun painting the kids’ lives that are the future of India.”
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P&G Shiksha has over the years received generous support from many thought leaders and celebrities such as Anupam Kher, Dr. Kiran Bedi, Anil Kumble, Rani Mukherjee, John Abraham, Abhay Deol, Farah Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Sameera Reddy, Huma Qureshi, Sushmita Sen, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Sharmila Tagore, Konkona Sen, Neha Dhupia, Soha Ali Khan, Lara Dutta, Preity Zinta, Jacqueline Fernandez, Jatin Das, Shaan, Chitrangada Singh, Soha Ali Khan, Shruti Hassan and many more.
P&G Shiksha also allows consumers to share in their support. This can be easily done by buying any P&G Product such as Tide, Ariel, Whisper, Pampers, Olay, Head &Shoulders, Pantene, Vicks, Gillette, Oral-B & AmbiPur and part of the proceeds will go towards building and supporting schools. Consumers can also visit P&G Shiksha’s online partner – Amazon.in (www.amazon.in/pgshiksha) to buy P&G products & support this cause.
With a motto of ‘Padhega India, Badhega India’ – P&G Shiksha believes that the secret to a brighter India lies in the quality of education of our children.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
