MAM
Rodeo Drive Luxury Products ropes Shikar Dhawan and Sania Mirza as brand endorsers
MUMBAI: One of India‘s leading luxury Swiss watches, world-class writing instruments and leather accessories Rodeo Drive Luxury Products has announced a one year endorsement deal with the explosive cricketing sensation Shikar Dhawan and India‘s most successful international woman tennis player Sania Mirza.
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The two sporting stars will be the first brand spokesperson for the entire range of Rodeo Drive Luxury brands retail line in India. For Rodeo Luxury Products this Tennis and Cricketing icons is an ideal match as it shares a common passion for perfection, precision, timelessness and elegance. Both these stars will represent Rodeo Drive as their brand ambassador to promote its ‘exciting‘ brand value. For this, these stars will appear in Rodeo Drive advertising campaigns in TV and print media.
“An important reason for Rodeo Drive to strike this duo endorsement deal is the huge popularity for both the sport in India and overseas. Cricket and Tennis fixtures attract very high numbers of spectators internationally. The deal is therefore an ideal opportunity for the Rodeo Drive to strengthen its top retail destination position and to gain new market shares”, said Rodeo Luxury Products MD Prithviraj Bagrecha. “We are confident both Shikhar and Sania will add immense brand value to Rodeo Drive as its brand ambassadors.”
Commenting on this endorsement Shikar Dhawan said “It gives me immense happiness to associate with Rodeo Drive Luxury Products, the first luxury boutique in Bangalore and housing the best of the luxury brands and bringing in complete customer satisfaction at the best costs. Apart from world class watches a destination for luxury accessories and collectibles, makes it indeed exclusive. I am most delighted to be a part of this wonderful enterprise.”
“Being a sporting professional which involves consistent travel across the globe and knowing brands and understanding the essence of luxury , It is wonderful to be a part of Rodeo Drive Luxury products, which reminds me of the world‘s most exclusive shopping destinations as well as many fantastic world class brands that Rodeo Drive brings under its umbrella. I am really excited to be a part of Rodeo Drive and to endorse them is really wonderful”, said Sania Mirza.
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.
