MxMIndia

Tag: Reliance Foundation

  • Nita Ambani, Founder and Chairperson, Reliance Foundation made the announcement on Sunday

    Jio & RF ESA to sponsor Women’s T20 tournament

    By A Correspondent

     

    Nita Ambani, Founder and Chairperson, Reliance Foundation has announced a significant support for women’s cricket in India. As the first step in this direction, Jio and Reliance Foundation Education and Sports For All (RF ESA) have come in as sponsor for the upcoming Women’s T20 Challenge. An extension of the IPL, the Women’s T20 Challenge will be played at Sharjah between three franchises – Supernovas, Trailblazers and Velocity led by Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Mithali Raj respectively, starting November 4, 2020.

     

    In addition, Ambani has offered the cricket facility at Jio Cricket Stadium, Navi Mumbai, for women cricketers. The stadium can be availed to conduct trials, camps and host competitive matches, throughout the year – all free of cost for our national women team. Furthermore, women cricketers can now benefit from the amenities for rehabilitation and sports science available at the reputed Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital & Research Centre in Mumbai.

     

    Commenting on her support for women’s cricket, Ambani said: “My heartiest congratulations to BCCI for organising the Women’s T20 Challenge. This is a progressive step towards the growth of women’s cricket in India. I am delighted to offer my full support to this wonderful initiative. I have immense faith in the potential and capabilities of all our sportswomen. Indian women cricketers have made the country proud with their outstanding achievements in ICC events over the last couple of years. Our aim is to ensure that we offer the best of infrastructure, training and rehab facilities to our girls. Players like Anjum, Mithali, Smriti, Harmanpreet and Poonam are great role models. I wish them and every member of the Indian women’s squad even greater success and glory in their journey ahead.”

     

     

  • Isha Foundation, Reliance Foundation, Vodafone-Ogilvy & Ola-Happy win big at presented

    Big night for green advertising

     

    The eighth edition of the Olive Crown Awards, the International Advertising Association (IAA) India Chapter’s awards for excellence in communicating sustainability was held in Mumbai on Tuesday, March 6. Isha Foundation, Reliance Foundation, Vodafone-Ogilvy & Ola-Happy McGarryBowen bagged the top awards.

     

    Said Ramesh Narayan, President – IAA India: “The response was heartening with more than 100 per cent increase in the number of entries being received. Entries have come from nine countries in total. The Olive Crown is truly a pan-Asian award now.”

     

     

    The Gold Corporate Social Crusader Award was presented to Reliance Foundation and the Silver to Vodafone. While accepting the award on behalf of foundation chair Nita Ambani, Kaushik Roy spoke of how Jamnagar in Gujarat, once with just 83 trees, today has 2500 acres of man-made green patch. They were proud of being the world’s largest mangrove and started at a time when the government hadn’t mandated CSR. Ogilvy & Mather bagged the prestigious Campaign of the Year for their Vodafone campaign. Shankar Mahadevan and children from his academy entertained the audience with a performance that had people asking for more.

     

    The Corporate Green Crusader award was presented to Isha Foundation for their Rally for Rivers initiative. Reading the citation, Megha Tata mentioned said: “The IAA is privileged to present Isha Foundation the Green Crusader Award for its unique and far-reaching initiatives for a sustainable environment and spreading the seeds for a greener future.”

     

    The highlight of the evening was a conversation of Jaggi Vasudev of the Isha Foundation, better known as Sadhguru, Viacom18 Group CEO Sudhanshu Vats. “This is Bharat – on small issues we may fight but we come together when there is a real problem,” he said on the Rally for Rivers project, adding: “When we get to a certain pace of activity in life, we have a fundamental responsibility to positively impact the life around us.”

    Olive Crown Winners- 2018

  • Ranjona Banerji writes about a grouse. Either spewing venom or tongue-in-cheek

    Ranjona Banerji: Irritating ads that irritate

    Ranjona Banerji

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Am stepping on a few toes here and other people’s territory but then wothehell. As much news as you watch on TV (or as much TV that you watch, be honest) you’re forced to watch as much advertising as content.

     

    And sometimes it’s fun (like Hari Sadu and naukri.com) or even the poor chappie who thinks he’s eating chicken, but it turns out to be a doggie. Or Fastrack’s funny series on the risqué side with Genelia D’Souza and Virat Kohli. Or even the Flipkart ads where children play adults.

     

    But what does one make of Priyanka Chopra squirming about on the ground to a song that does not match the bizarre dance she does as she tells us she hates the “chip chip”. All that happens for Garnier is that most people throw up and switch channels.

     

    Through the telecast of Wimbledon on Star Sports you get to hear that “amazing Thailand always amazes”. Well, duh, couldn’t they think of another word? Or has someone done Thailand tourism in?

     

    The Kelloggs ads with that vastly annoying mother who does something as simple as throw a few almonds on a bowl of cereal and pretends she’s invented sliced bread is anodyne as such ads normally are.

     

    But the winners of the most irritating ads have to be Reliance Foundation and Coca-Cola. Insensitivity seems to rule the Coca-Cola ad in which a group of not very well off (how do I say this politely?) children play cricket in some dusty desert scrub land as a voice over tells us poetically how they have no cricket bat, ball, stumps, the pavilion has no roof and so on and ends some poignant note about how this is not play but the call of the earth or something. Then Sachin Tendulkar with his strange new hairstyle drinks a Coke and says play on. The children and Tendulkar never meet and you get the feeling that the children cannot afford to drink Coca-Cola, certainly not one each.

     

    And there’s the Reliance Foundation. I’m not getting to the connection with the programme Satyamev Jayate. For one, the ad looks like a copy of the Vedanta ad, which claimed to be saving the lives of various village children with schools and food and making their dreams come true. The ad ran into as many problems as Vedanta does with its mining projects and the company’s attempt to redeem itself with this real or exaggerated NGO social work effort did not work.

     

    If indeed Nita Ambani is moving into social work, an ad that copies an already discredited ad is surely not the best vehicle. Also, the figures put up for the number of children fed or schooled or clothed is embarrassingly small for a company the size of Reliance. Even worse, Nita Ambani’s look is so carefully crafted that it looks just that. Also makes her ears look unnaturally large.

     

    Hidden persuasion is fine. But these are attempts at such blatant manipulation that they are not just exploitative, they may not even work.

     

    For those interested in advertising and how it works, try and catch The Gruen Transfer on the Australia Network or Youtube. Hosted by Australian comic Will Anderson, it is funny, incisive, intelligent and hard-hitting. And did I say funny?

     

    All right, I’ll watch the news from tomorrow.