Brands
HDFC Securities busts fraudsters with flair
MUMBAI: HDFC Securities has launched Kya Aap Taiyyar Ho?, a nationwide fraud awareness drive that brings Bollywood storytelling to the world of financial security. The campaign, part of the company’s Knowyourmoney initiative, uses humour, drama, and realism to show how easily scams can slip into everyday life, and how awareness can be the ultimate defence.
Directed by award-winning filmmaker Nitesh Tiwari of Dangal and Chhichhore fame, the campaign stars Manoj Pahwa, Bhuvan Arora, and Sapna Sand as part of a quirky ‘Fraudster Family’ that hilariously exposes modern investment scams. Through engaging short films, the series demystifies online trickery and emotional manipulation that have cost countless families their savings.
“When you see people lose their hard-earned money, you realise awareness isn’t optional, it’s essential,” said Tiwari. “This campaign empowers every investor to stay informed and protect what they’ve built.”
With a mission to make financial literacy entertaining and accessible, HDFC Securities has turned Knowyourmoney into one of India’s largest hybrid awareness programmes, reaching over 1.1 crore people weekly through videos, podcasts, community sessions, and gamified learning in 13 languages.
HDFC Securities EVP & CMO Puneeth Bekal noted, “Fraud has evolved in scale and sophistication, and the only sustainable defence is awareness. Kya Aap Taiyyar Ho? gives people the tools to make informed decisions and safeguard their money.”
The campaign’s creative offshoots, from a comic strip series called Bear and Bull to interactive games like Investment Heist and a forthcoming Fraudster’s Dossier, make money matters feel less intimidating and more engaging. It even celebrates citizens who have successfully spotted and stopped scams, proving that financial vigilance can be learned.
By combining cinema, community, and conversation, HDFC Securities isn’t just teaching people how to protect their money, it’s turning awareness into a movement. After all, when it comes to scams, prevention is the smartest investment of all.
Brands
Godrej clarifies ‘GI’ identifier after logo similarity debate
Says GI is not a logo, will not replace Godrej signature across products.
MUMBAI: In a branding storm where shapes did the talking, Godrej is now spelling things out. Godrej Industries Group (GIG) has issued a clarification on its newly introduced ‘GI’ identifier, addressing questions around its purpose and design following a wave of online criticism. At the centre of the debate were two concerns: whether the new mark replaces the long-standing Godrej logo, and whether its geometric design mirrors other corporate identities.
The company has drawn a clear line. The Godrej signature logo, it said, remains unchanged and continues to be the sole logo across all consumer-facing products and services. The ‘GI’ mark, by contrast, is not a logo but a corporate group identifier intended for use alongside the Godrej signature or company name, and aimed at stakeholders such as investors, media and talent rather than consumers.
The need for such a distinction stems from the 2024 restructuring of the broader Godrej Group into two separate business entities. With both continuing to operate under the same Godrej name and signature, the identifier is positioned as a way to differentiate the Godrej Industries Group at a corporate level.
The rollout, however, triggered a broader conversation on design originality. Critics pointed to similarities between the GI mark’s geometric composition and logos used by companies globally, raising questions about distinctiveness.
Responding to this, GIG said its intellectual property and legal review found that such overlaps are common in minimalist, geometry-led design systems. Basic forms such as circles and rectangles appear across dozens of brand identities worldwide, the company noted.
It added that the identifier emerged from an extensive design process and was chosen for its simplicity, allowing it to sit alongside the Godrej signature without competing visually. While acknowledging that elemental shapes may appear less distinctive in isolation, the group emphasised that the mark is part of a broader identity system that includes a custom typeface, sonic branding and other proprietary elements.
Following legal and ethical assessments, the company said it found no impediment to using the identifier, reiterating that the GI mark is a corporate tool not a consumer-facing symbol.
In short, the logo isn’t changing but the conversation around it certainly has.
