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Airtel takes ‘har friend zaroori hai, yaar’ campaign to digital platform
MUMBAI: Telecommunications major Bharti Airtel plans to take its popular campaign ‘har friend zaroori hai, yaar’ (HFZ) to the next level with the launch of a new online viral campaign at its YouTube channel.
Taproot has created 20 videos for the digital campaign. It is inspired by ‘friend types’ or tags created by the online audience on Facebook during an outreach programme initiated by Airtel earlier. The company will periodically release these videos and use the concept of ‘Gamification’ to excite viewers.
Bharti Airtel director – global brand Bharat Bambawale said, “The youthful rendition of Airtel’s ‘har friend zaroori hai, yaar’ campaign and its accompanying foot tapping friendship anthem have resonated well with people of all age groups and backgrounds – much like the brand itself. Given the theme itself, focusing on the discerning online audience was a natural choice for us. With this in mind, Airtel earlier launched an online campaign that encouraged everyone to create unique friend types on Facebook which received a whopping 65,000 entries in a span of days.”
“We have now chosen interesting friend tags of this crowd sourced lot (like ‘status update fried, activist friend, dhinchak friend’, ‘filmi friend’, ‘chipkoo friend’ and ‘proxy friend’) to create new HFZ online viral videos. These videos will follow the increasingly popular global trend of ‘Gamification’ to encourage viewers to spread the word on these evocative videos that bring alive ways in which friends touch different aspect of our lives,” he added.
The original HFZ soundtrack is now also available in new interpretations like laavni, bhangra and hip-hop folk.
Gamification is an infusion of gaming techniques and unique story telling that makes discovery content more fun and engaging. As part of ‘Gamification’, everyone keen on watching these videos will need to visit the YouTube channel and will then be provided cues, by responding correctly to which, they will be able to unlock video levels and gradually move ahead watch all videos.
Tagging others and sharing these videos on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ will allow viewers to gather points on the leaderboard. And then finally one can upload his own friend type video in order to win a Nokia Lumia 800 and a trip to Ibiza, Spain to party with your
friends as the grand prize.
Airtel released these videos on the web yesterday for the online audience for view and share.
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
