The Roman God of Duality, Janus, is depicted with two heads - one facing the past and one facing the future, both symbolising the inherent contradictions in everyday life. This powerful concept of binary opposition is what we see in concepts like the Yin & Yang, or closer home, the Purusha & Prakriti principle.

Having set out on a journey to delve into colour meanings in culture, I once got an opportunity to stare at this Yves Klein painting in a modern art gallery in Rome. I focused on the famed International Klein Blue, and somehow my mind wandered to some of the other brilliant blues I have experienced. To the magical Indigo in indigo vats. To the turquoise blues of the pristine beaches. To the pale skies and the calming rivers. Blue evoked opposing emotions in me. The turbulence of the stormy skies and the angry waves, but also the calm of the lulling waves and the hope of the open skies. Then it struck me, that there is a certain two facedness in this one single colour. Blue is indeed two faced, I concluded.

In this interview, Issac talks about repositioning Puma from a lifestyle focused brand to a performance oriented brand in India, about how HealthifyMe moved from being a calorie counting app to a brand that changes one's life, about how Discovery+ straddles the thin line between being a Magician Archetype brand without losing the wisdom aspect of the Sage Archetype, about conceptualising Ivory - the age tech startup brand that he cofounded, and more.

Planet Earth. Humans. Consumerism. Climate crisis. The link is abundantly clear, and It's code red for humanity and the Earth. According to global data, 75% of consumers are actively concerned about the urgency to act. As marketers haunted by our past of fueling consumerism, now is the time to act to achieve a seismic shift in climate consciousness and change by leveraging our superpowers - A deep understanding of consumer behavior and the art of storytelling. Let's go!

In this commentary, we delve into the heart of an often talked about paradox in the narratives of sustainability and how brands can responsibly navigate sustainability briefs through actionable insights.

Our latest commentary explores the social media moments that transcended the sea of hashtags, memes, and ephemeral trends and emerged as modern movements worth rooting for.

Susan Mathen, Partner & Strategy Director, Hue & Why in conversation with Garima Sharma, Assistant General Manager, Pernod Ricard India.

In this interview, Garima talks about building Cheryl’s Cosmeceuticals as a brand within the L’Oreal Group, refreshing the brand world of Kaya Skin Clinic, repositioning the whiskey brand Oaken Glow within Pernod Ricard India, and more.

Trend#1: Reality Mirage

Deepfakes, AI generated images/texts/responses have become common. Filtered images, cosmetic surgeries, ultra perfect images were all quite the rage. We have now come to a stage where we cannot differentiate between the real and the replica. So much so that it is now a cause and an effect.

We see the real trying to replicate the replica! Actual photoshoots start to look like AI generated images. Skin looking so blemish free that it seems like the original fake. Physical art pieces take inspiration from AI art.

What is real? What is fake?

This has led to a certain amount of disbelief, uncertainty and neutrality among people - appreciation seems measured, acceptance seems hesitant, as we know not what is real and what is fake.

A colour that has inspired song titles, musician names, movie names and more in popular culture - Pink is one that has gone through many avatars. There are moments in time, when a colour has a particular dominant semiotic meaning, but soon it evolves to wrap itself in another meaning in a different context. These moments in the life of Pink, in its sometimes bold, sometimes confused and mostly tumultuous journey, has been one that has struck me as riveting.

Pink is a colour that evolved linguistically at a later point - historically, colours that have had words to signify them individually in most languages were red, white, black, yellow, green and blue. Pink was seen as a subset of red, and as such many connotations of red, were passed on to pink too. Aggression, domination, and other so called masculine traits. So it comes as no surprise that Pink was originally regarded as a masculine colour. The generally accepted rule up till the 1800s was that gifts for baby boys should be in pink, and for baby girls - blue (pink, or faded red, was apt for boys who would grow up to be valiant scarlet jacketed fighters and blue was the colour of Virgin Mary - gentle, nurturing and kind).

Fast forward a few decades and we have Pink taking on very different associations - that of being soft and feminine, innocent and virtuous. These were values prescribed to women at a certain time, and pink was the colour such women were depicted in by artists. A soft hue, Baker Miller Pink was trending at one point as it reduced blood pressure and calmed down angry prisoners. Studies that cemented the role of pink to make people feel more peaceful and docile led to the colour being associated with the desirable traits in an ideal woman at that point in time.