MAM
Britannia 50-50 settles crunch vs melt debate with new TVC launch
Pant and Rodrigues front campaign reviving ‘Na Re Naa Naa’ jingle
MUMBAI:For three decades, 50-50 has played on the idea of duality, pairing two flavours in one cracker. With Cheeze Dipped, the brand shifts the spotlight from flavour to texture. Built with 22 baked layers for a structured crunch and enrobed in cheese for a smooth finish, the product aims to deliver a 50 percent crunchy and 50 percent melty experience.
To bring the contrast alive, the brand has rolled out a new TVC featuring cricketers Rishabh Pant and Jemimah Rodrigues. Conceptualised by Mullen Lowe Lintas Group, the film turns the Crunch versus Melt debate into playful banter, with Pant and Rodrigues embodying two distinct snack personalities. The back-and-forth builds to a simple resolution, both experiences can coexist in one bite.
Adding a dose of nostalgia, the iconic “Na Re Naa Naa” jingle returns in a refreshed avatar, reconnecting the brand with a new generation while nodding to its cricket-led legacy.
Britannia vice president marketing Siddharth Gupta said the brand has always celebrated contrast, from its early “Na Re Naa Naa” days to its cricket associations. With Cheeze Dipped, he noted, the idea moves beyond flavour and comes alive through texture. Bringing together male and female cricketing icons under 50-50 felt like a natural extension of that thought.
Rodrigues said the campaign’s central idea resonated instantly, adding that the lively exchange with Pant captures the crunchy versus melty debate in an entertaining way. Pant echoed the sentiment, calling the concept relatable and saying the playful banter made the shoot enjoyable.
Mullen Lowe Lintas Group president creative Sarvesh Raikar, described 50-50 as one of India’s most loved biscuits and said the new variant required a fresh expression of duality. The contrasting energies of Pant and Rodrigues, he added, offered the perfect metaphor for crunch and melt.
The Britannia 50-50 Cheeze Dipped Crunchy Layered Sandwich is currently available across select cities at leading retail outlets and on quick commerce platforms, inviting snackers to stop choosing sides and simply take a bite.
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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.
