MAM
WhatsApp unveils latest campaign ‘Scam Se Bacho’
Mumbai: WhatsApp has launched a user-safety campaign titled “Scam Se Bacho,” which will come to life through a music video. The campaign aims to create awareness and educate users on making safer online payments. It is conceptualised by BBDO India and directed by Indian film director and editor Shimit Amin, known for award-winning films like “Chak De! India.”
The “Scam Se Bacho” music video is a parody rendition of the popular evergreen song, “Dekh Ke Chalo,” and it delivers the socially relevant message of user safety in a fun and breezy tone.
The new lyrics demonstrate real-life situations in which individuals could be susceptible to scams and reinforce the message of staying safe and exercising caution while making digital payments. It warns users about scams such as falling for bogus lottery schemes, disclosing your UPI PIN over the phone to a phoney customer service representative, or sending money to a scammer posing as a friend without first verifying their identity.
The goal of the video is to engage the audience through nostalgia and educate them about digital payment safety in the most comforting and memorable way.
Talking about the music video, WhatsApp India director-payments Manesh Mahatme said, “While UPI continues to remain one of the safest, most convenient and interoperable modes of making payments, India’s growing acceptance of online payments has also seen an increase in digital payment fraud. User safety is at the core of everything we do at WhatsApp, and through this exciting and captivating music video, we want to educate and empower our users with all the information they need to safeguard themselves against any fraud while making digital payments. We hope that this initiative by WhatsApp will resonate with people and they can sing their way through safe and secure online payments.”
Talking about the campaign, Meta India director-marketing Avinash Pant said, “India’s growing acceptance of digital payments has also led to an increase in the need to make people aware of how to keep their payments safe. Through this campaign, which is built on several real-world scenarios that people face in their everyday life, our endeavour is to educate and empower users with all the information they need to safeguard themselves against any fraud while making digital payments. This initiative reinforces Whatsapp’s commitment to the safety of our users while making payments as simple and convenient as sending a message.”
Commenting on the creative treatment of the music video, BBDO India chair and chief creative officer Josy Paul said, “Our primary goal with this music video was to spread awareness and engage the audience sensitively on this subject. We decided to create entertainment that educates rather than advertisements. Our goal of reworking a fun, nostalgic song like “Dekh ke Chalo” was to use the power of music to convey a strong message that’ll help people relate to the moments that we collectively face in our lives. The song triggers memory structures that allow the audience to more easily receive the message. We hope it will encourage people to be more aware next time.”
Payments on WhatsApp allow users to send and receive money from their contacts via the unified payment interface (UPI) as easily as sending a WhatsApp message. With user safety at its core, payments on WhatsApp are designed with a strong set of security and privacy principles, including entering a personal UPI PIN for each payment.
MAM
Sameer Nair shares heartfelt note as he exits Applause Entertainment
After nine years building the streamer’s content engine, one of India’s best-known TV men is moving on
MUMBAI: Sameer Nair is out. The chief executive of Applause Entertainment, the content studio backed by Kumar Mangalam Birla’s media empire, has announced his departure after nearly nine years at the helm, closing the chapter on one of Indian entertainment’s more quietly consequential careers.
Nair, who built Applause from the ground up in its current avatar, oversaw a slate that spanned Indian originals and international adaptations, threading together a hub-and-spoke business model that partnered with streaming platforms, broadcasters and production houses alike. The results were uneven, as they always are in content, but the ambition was not.
In a post on LinkedIn, Nair was generous to his outgoing patron. He thanked Birla for being an “inspirational boss and a great patron of the arts,” and signed off with a cheerful “Au Revoir” and a promise to remain Applause’s biggest cheerleader. Whether that sentiment survives the next chapter remains to be seen.
No successor has been named. Applause Entertainment did not immediately comment.
Nair built the machine. Now someone else has to run it — and in a streaming market that is simultaneously consolidating and convulsing, that is no small ask.
