MAM
Harpic enters in drain cleaning category with its new product ‘Harpic Drain Xpert’
Mumbai: A health and hygiene company Harpic has entered into the drain cleaning category with the launch of its new product ‘Harpic Drain Xpert’. With this new generation cleaning product, Harpic will provide a convenient and effective solution for its consumers to help keep the kitchen and bathroom drain pipes clean by preventing clogging occurrences.
The product was launched after intensive market research. Before launching the product, Harpic reached out to Indian consumers and found that over 57 per cent of households faced some kind of drain blockage at least once a month and have been unable to find an effective and readily available solution in the market. This leads to consumers using generic products and solutions that do not work effectively, leaving the users unhappy and miserable. Harpic Drain Xpert aims to address this gap in the market and meet the needs of potentially over 100 million households.
Speaking about this new product, Reckitt regional marketing director South Asia – Hygiene Saurabh Jain commented, “Harpic has focused on improving toilet and bathroom hygiene for consumers while also providing them with simple solutions to embrace better sanitation. With Harpic Drain Xpert, we are also venturing into drains in the kitchen and washing areas at home. This effective and specialist product is designed to help consumers save time and resources during a clogging emergency, the experience of which is often unpleasant and quite stressful. We will focus our efforts on category creation by educating consumers on product usage and on making our products easily available.”
Reckitt’s Harpic global category R&D director Dr. Skand Saksena highlighted, “We continuously work towards understanding consumer needs and bringing products that add value to their changing lifestyle. Our research indicates that consumers have a hard time dealing with clogs, especially since they disrupt other activities in the household. Moreover, drain cleaning is not a regular chore for a household until a problem occurs, and many home remedies are not very effective in long-term care. Harpic Drain Xpert is designed to offer consumers a superior, easy-to-use solution that clears the toughest of clogs in just 30 minutes without damaging pipes or removing any foul odour.”
Harpic Drain Xpert provides customers with the option of not having to worry about any problems with their drainpipes. The product is available in a one-time use sachet of 50 gm for Rs 25 and a pack of eight sachets for Rs 200 at all retail outlets and e-commerce platforms.
MAM
ASCI study uncovers how Gen Alpha navigates ads in endless digital feeds
‘What the Sigma?’ ethnographic report maps blurred boundaries between content and commerce for 7–15-year-olds.
MUMBAI: Gen Alpha isn’t scrolling through the internet, they’re living rent-free inside its never-ending dopamine drip, and the ads have already moved in next door. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) Academy, partnering with Futurebrands Consulting, has published ‘What the Sigma?’, an immersive ethnographic study that maps how Indian children aged 7–15 (Generation Alpha) consume, interpret and live alongside media and commercial messaging in a hyper-digital environment.
The research draws on in-home interviews, sibling and peer conversations, and discussions with parents, teachers, counsellors, psychologists, marketers and kidfluencers across six cities. It examines not only what children watch but how algorithms, content creators, peers and parents shape their relationship with the constant stream of shorts, vlogs, gameplay, memes, sponsored posts and ‘kid-ified’ adult material.
Five core themes emerged:
- Discontinuous Generation, Gen Alpha is not growing up alongside the internet, they are growing up inside it. Cultural references, humour, aesthetics and language sync globally in real time, often leaving adults functionally illiterate in their children’s world. A reference that lands instantly for a 10-year-old in Mumbai or Visakhapatnam feels opaque or disjointed to most parents.
- Authority Vacuum, Parents and teachers frequently lose cultural fluency in digital spaces. The algorithm responsive, inexhaustible and perfectly attuned to preferences becomes the most attentive presence in many children’s daily lives. Rules around screen time feel increasingly difficult to enforce when adults cannot fully see or understand the content landscape.
- Digital as Society, Online and offline no longer exist as separate realms, they form one continuous reality. The phone is not a tool children pick up; it is the primary social environment they inhabit.
- Great Media Mukbang, Content flows as an ambient, boundary-less, multi-sensorial stream. Entertainment, advertising, commerce, gameplay, memes and vlogs merge into one undifferentiated feed. The line between active choice and passive absorption has largely collapsed.
- Blurred Ad Recognition, Children aged 7–12 typically recognise only the most overt advertising formats. Influencer promotions, gaming integrations and vlog sponsorships often register as organic entertainment. Children aged 13–15 show greater ad literacy but remain highly susceptible to narrative-integrated, passion-driven and emotionally resonant brand messaging. Discernment remains low across the board in a non-stop stream.
ASCI CEO and secretary general Manisha Kapoor said, “ASCI Academy’s study is an investigation into the content life of Generation Alpha not to judge them but to understand them. Their cultural reference points seem disjointed from those of earlier generations. Insights on how they perceive advertising is the first step towards building more responsible engagement frameworks, given that they are the youngest media consumers in our country right now.”
Futurebrands Consulting founder and director Santosh Desai added, “While earlier generations have been exposed to digital media, for this generation it is the world they inhabit. This report explores not only what they watch but how they are being shaped by algorithms, content and advertising.”
The study proposes four adaptive, principles-led pathways:
- Universal signposting of commercial intent using design principles that make advertising recognisable even to young audiences.
- Ecosystem-wide responsibility shared among advertisers, platforms, creators, schools and parents.
- Future-ready safeguards built directly into children’s content experiences rather than as optional background settings.
- Formal media and advertising literacy embedded in school curricula to teach age-appropriate understanding of persuasion and commercial intent.
In a feed that never pauses, Gen Alpha isn’t merely watching content, they’re swimming in an ocean where entertainment, commerce and identity swirl together. The real question isn’t whether they can spot an ad; it’s whether the adults building the ocean can agree on where the lifeguards should stand.
