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Virgin gets Ranbir, Genelia as brand ambassadors; aggressive campaign mooted for South India
BANGALORE: Virgin Mobile, the Tata Teleservices (TTSL) youth-focused mobile brand, has launched its GSM services for the South India region.
Additionally, the company has also roped in Bollywood actors Ranbir Kapoor and Genelia D’Souza to endorse the ‘Virgin‘ brand. TTSL has a brand franchisee arrangement with Richard Branson’s Virgin Group.
Explains Virgin Mobile India (Virgin) CEO M A Madhusudan, “Initially, our instructions were to build Virgin as a ‘brand of choice’ and not to focus on numbers. We have been quite successful in that. Ranbir and Genelia have been appointed brand ambassadors to inch closer to the youth and to take the brand to the next level.”
Said Virgin CMO Prasad Narasimhan, “In the beginning, along with television and outdoor, we will use print to create a sort of a bang and later use it as and when required. We will use radio for engagement and frequency.” While Virgin’s outdoor campaign has already commenced, five TVC’s – one for brand building and four on tariffs – will hit the air across the South Indian television screens over the next few days. “We are waiting for deliveries to be completed to all our outlets before we start advertising. We will be using television channels and programmes that are relevant to the youth – this would be sports, music, movies, news, even GEC’s with spots being beamed at suitable periods during the day,” said Narasimhan. While Bates handles the creative work, Mindshare handles the media buying for Virgin. bcwebwise.com is its web creative agency.
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Virgin has planned an aggressive multi-media campaign covering television, radio, outdoor, cinema and internet which will be supplemented by print ads released during strategic periods.
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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.
