Netflix's greatest hit, The Queen's Gambit has exponentially increased chess game app downloads in the store
That wasn't part of the script.
Though the connection between brand surges and hits has been documented, it's still hard to figure out what will work.
Product placement in films has become an integral part of funding productions.
When Madhuri Dixit, swayed to 'Didi tera devar deewana' in the hit film Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, it was the purple sari she wore that sold in the millions.
The song still tops the charts with over 140 million views on YouTube
Rip-offs hawked on street corners and small shops probably made more money collectively for shopkeepers than the movie did for the producers.
Movies influence popular culture and design more than we care to admit. But it is a lottery.
The flops are forgotten - unsold merchandise gathering dust in musty warehouses and victims of fickle public taste.
There was even a short-lived trend of building the brand into the song lyrics. 'Main Zandu balm hui', was one that hit the sweet spot.
For marketers, it's a long shot in the dark.
The ripple effects of Covid vaccines
Only a few products have truly global demand and the vaccine is one of them.
Pfizer's vaccine has to be stored at minus 70 degrees.
That has sent the requirement for dry ice skyrocketing. Production capacity at all plants manufacturing dry ice has been locked up already
The companies involved are trying to see how they can ramp it up further.
But storing large quantities of dry ice, which is hazardous, is also a problem and regulations around that are sure to follow.
There will be a search for alternatives and cheaper solutions will emerge to drive prices down.
There are already plans to reformulate the vaccines to be effective at room temperatures but that is at least a year away before it is tested and proven.
Governments will push forward to expand the cold chain in a hurry and that will support the deliveries of many other products in future.
Logistics companies will come up with new ways to preserve and deliver the cargo
Those solutions will be used long after the vaccines reach their destinations.
The ripple effects of vaccine discovery have already shaped clinical research and approval procedures.
But we'll keep that for another day.
A note to myself
Handwritten notes are a rarity now.
When you hold a pen in your hand, it feels alien.
Like a forgotten memory, the lines struggle to form legible words.
In your mind, you still think you know cursive writing, that point when one letter flowed perfectly into another.
Some of us were commended and got prizes for good handwriting but that's over in school
There was a joy in seeing words form and arrange themselves on a single line, like birds on a wire.
Now, they've all flown away and we have perfectly legible impersonal text.
No indication or the personality of the person sending it. Like many other things, the features that differentiated us have merged.
Like fast food restaurants have done for food. Reduced it to a state where it's acceptable to everyone and distinctive for none.
But we won't accept that things have changed.
The technology to mimic handwritten notes is now available.
The fake versions of the genuine thing.
What is strange is that we won't simply pick up a piece of paper, write a note and send it off to a dear friend. Too much work.
As usual, something gets lost in translation.
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The song that launched a million purple saris