It is Apple season and the iPhone maker commandeered the world’s attention as it unveiled its latest phone and climate initiatives ad campaign. Digital and BTL engagements by brands also caught our eye.

Tim Cook vs Mother Nature

Trust Apple to come up with an attention grabbing way of telling stories. This time around, it is the way in which Apple reiterated its commitment towards carbon neutrality and sustainability through a new spot that stars actress Octavia Spencer, playing Mother Nature, locking eyes with Apple CEO Tim Cook angrily.

The ad starts with tense Apple employees waiting for someone important. Accompanied by a clap of thunder, Mother Nature strides in grilling Apple staffers on the company’s carbon footprint, initiatives to eliminate plastics and so on. She is antagonistic until confronted with an Apple Watch that is the company’s first carbon-neutral product and an assurance that by 2030 all Apple devices will have a net zero climate impact. “Don’t disappoint your Mother,” she says, sashaying out. A truly innovative and easy to understand way of describing its ESG initiatives, though Apple also got trolled heavily for the artificial playacting in the spot!

Rural outreach

Bajaj Almond Drops Hair Oil set out to do a brand activation in the hinterlands of Uttar Pradesh based on research which indicated that rural women are often reluctant to try newer hairstyles thinking that it might lead to poor hair health and hair fall. Selecting 100 villages in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, the ‘Ban Ja Toofani’ campaign engaged with 15,000 women across the regions of Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Allahabad, Kaushambi, Mirzapur, Jaunpur and Varanasi.

A branded L-shaped van covered three villages a day inviting women over 18 to participate in an activity that asked them to style each others’ hair using accessories such as beads, clips and flowers provided by the brand. The most creative duo received enticing gift hampers. It partnered with Vritti Mindwave Media for the below-the-line 33-day campaign.

Dynamic duo

Cheil India gave a fresh spin to Samsung Galaxy’s global campaign — Dynamic Duo — with an influencer activity. It used two pairs of influencers — Danish Sait with Mallika Dua and Kenny Sebastian with Srushti Tawde — to put out four reels to push through the message that Samsung’s ecosystem is optimised when in pairs. The chosen influencers were tasked to improvise the script they were given with their unique flavours, and act and record it in the shoot organised by Cheil.

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