This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam and Anand Vardhan are joined by advertising guru and columnist Santosh Desai and multimedia artist Anurag Minus Verma. 

On the impact of political advertisements, Santosh says it has “never” been a significant player, as ads “simply fail” to reach an audience “beyond a certain comfort zone”. Anurag says influencer and meme marketing agencies instead have become “very important” in communication strategies.

The conversation moves to the elections in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi and Rae Bareli. Manisha, who reported from the two constituencies, says that unemployment is a “really big concern”. She says that while people are talking about it from village to village, it is not a sign of anti-incumbency. “A lot of them say Modi should focus on this [employment] in his third term.”

On the temporary bail of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and his speech about Prime Minister Narendra Modi retiring before turning 75, Anand says, “It is a ploy to confuse voters.”

This and a whole lot more. Tune in!

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Timecodes

00: 05:25 - Headlines

00: 14:21 - Political advertising 

00:59:32 - Santosh recommendation

01:10:33 - Amethi-Rae Bareli elections, Kejriwal’s interim bail

01:33:24 - Anurag recommendation

01:34:23 - Letters 

02:05:10 - Panel recommendations 

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Produced and recorded by Aryan Mahtta, edited by Hassan Bilal and Umrav Singh.

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