MAM
Viral Ad: Jewellery brand focuses on women safety
Mumbai: The Hathras incident has once again put the spotlight on women’s safety in the country. But with every passing day, we come across more reports of atrocities committed against women. With the authorities at a loss as to what measures to take, and society inclined to blame the survivor, it’s high time for women to take matters into their own hands. In this spirit, H S Kalekar jewellers from Kolhapur has come up with the campaign Har Beetiyan Ko Ab Durga Banna Padega (Every daughter must become a Durga).
The commercial begins with a young girl walking alone on a deserted street. A young man follows her on his bike and stares insolently at her. The biker keeps stalking her, then suddenly blocks her way. The distressed girl changes her course, and spots an old lady sweeping on the road sides. She runs up to the woman, takes her broomstick and proceeds to threaten the man in pursuit. The girl manoeuvres the broomstick at high speed in nunchuck-style, which is an advanced form of martial arts. Intimidated by her martial art skills, the eve-teaser runs away.
The ad ends with the girl walking through the empty streets fearlessly and leaves a strong social message:
Saans Saans Tufaan Bane
Jab Tinka Tinka Shashtra Bane
Khud Ka Sanmaan Khud Karna Padega
Har Beetiyan Ko Ab Durga Banna Padega
(Every breath turns into a typhoon
And even a twig becomes a weapon
One must first respect themselves
Every daughter must become a Durga)
Where most jewellery brands accentuate a woman’s femininity by portraying her in the traditional roles of wife, mother or daughter, H S Kalekar has highlighted her strength and indomitable spirit. In fact, they have completely omitted showcasing jewellery in the ad.
Through the campaign, the brand wants to encourage women to shed the role of victim and become a fighter. She is not the aggressor, but when it comes to defending what she values, she won’t back down. She must be her own guardian.
At a time when the matter of women's safety has become obfuscated by endless debates and politics, H S Kalekar jewellers’ championing of women empowerment is a much-needed and commendable move. The campaign was widely shared on social media and many lauded the brand for making a bold and progressive statement.
According to the National Crimes Records Bureau, India recorded 88 rape cases every day in 2019 and the rape vulnerability of a girl or woman has increased up to 44 per cent in the last 10 years.
AD Agencies
Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
