Good and Bad PR: Protinex’s strength goals, LEGO’s storytelling, and Cosmo Sunshield’s ace casting

Welcome to this week's Good and Bad PR. This is where we rate some of the most high profile PR campaigns we've seen in India over the past two weeks. We rate each campaign by our complicated black box evaluation methodology which uses 3 assessment levels:

[Rating Metre: Hmmm… → Not bad at all! → Oof, this is awesome!]

Step Aside, Athletes, It’s Grocery Day

Modern wellness advertising has a remarkable ability to make ordinary people feel underqualified for their own bodies. Everyone seems to be training for something. A marathon. A triathlon. A mountain. At the very least, an aggressively lit before-and-after photo.

Protinex's latest campaign, Strength Hai Toh Simple Hai, opts out of that competition.

Instead of asking us to become stronger than everyone else, it asks a much less ambitious question: can you carry your groceries without making it a full-body experience?

The campaign quietly redefines strength as something you only notice when it starts disappearing. Carrying your child. Climbing the stairs. Lifting a suitcase into the overhead compartment. None of these are particularly impressive. That's precisely the point.

The most persuasive benefit isn't becoming extraordinary. It's delaying the moment when ordinary things start feeling unexpectedly difficult.

For years, protein advertising has sold performance. Protinex is selling the ability to stop thinking about performance altogether.

Rating: Not bad at all!

Act 1: Build the Tower. Act 2: Find the Lore.

Any kid from the '90s will remember the unmistakable clack of two LEGO bricks snapping together as they built their latest masterpiece. Those were simpler times: build it, admire it, accidentally step on it six months later.

LEGO's latest campaign with Olivia Rodrigo takes it a notch ahead. Set to go public in August, the collection features five sets inspired by Rodrigo's music, albums, tours and personal life. But the bricks are only half the experience. The sets are packed with references, hidden details and inside jokes for fans to uncover long after the final piece has snapped into place.

The campaign understands that, for many fans, the story doesn't end when the album does. The merchandise becomes another chapter.

That's what makes this more than a celebrity collaboration. It recognises that fandom has evolved from consumption to participation.

It's a smart way to think about merchandise, isn't it? Instead of marking the end of a cultural moment, it keeps it alive.

Rating: Not bad at all!

Jimmy Shergill Understood the Assignment

Every new car comes pre-installed with anxiety.

The first scratch. The first dent. The first overly enthusiastic stranger who decides your bonnet is an appropriate place to lean while chatting on the phone.

Cosmo Sunshield's latest campaign understands that it isn't really selling paint protection film. It's selling relief.

The insight itself isn't revolutionary. Most car owners already treat their vehicles with a level of care usually reserved for family heirlooms. The campaign doesn't invent that behaviour. It simply exaggerates it.

But the true showstealer is Jimmy Shergill. He resists the temptation to play a celebrity and instead plays something much more entertaining: an average Indian who's one scratch away from a mild existential crisis.

To my mind, the best advertising doesn't create new truths. It recognises the ones we've been laughing at for years. Truly, mazaa aa gaya!

Rating: Oof, this is awesome!