ITV

Tag: Laxman Narasimhan

  • Starbucks launches Starbucks Studios

    Starbucks launches Starbucks Studios

    Mumbai: Starbucks is launching Starbucks Studios, a new production studio aimed at creating original entertainment to foster deeper connections and spark conversations. This initiative is in partnership with Sugar23, a media company founded by Oscar-winning producer Michael Sugar. Sugar23 specializes in connecting brands with filmmakers to produce high-quality branded content.

    The studio’s launch coincides with broader changes at Starbucks. In March, CEO Laxman Narasimhan announced a new global leadership structure that took effect on 1 April, designed to support Starbucks’ global expansion goals. The coffee giant plans to increase its number of stores from the current 38,000 to around 55,000 worldwide, with a significant portion of new locations opening outside the U.S.

    Starbucks has long focused on human connection, and Starbucks Studios will further this mission through collaborations across various creative fields, including the arts, design, architecture, fashion, publishing, and music. This initiative also includes hiring a global brand creative leader, who will report directly to Narasimhan.

    Starbucks joins other brands, such as Nike, AB InBev, Saint Laurent, Mailchimp, and LVMH have ventured into creating their own entertainment divisions.

    This isn’t Starbucks’ first foray into entertainment. In 2016, the company released “Upstanders,” a two-season original series, and in 2019, it released the documentary “Hingakawa,” which marked the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. Additionally, Starbucks was involved in the six-part documentary series “This Is Football,” which explored the impact of football on communities worldwide.

  • RB announces $25 million for Reckitt Global Hygiene Institute

    RB announces $25 million for Reckitt Global Hygiene Institute

    NEW DELHI: RB today announced the launch of a global initiative to generate high-quality scientific research-based evidence to inform public health recommendations and promote behaviours that improve global hygiene. The Reckitt Global Hygiene Institute (RGHI) is a public health research and innovation hub that will bridge epidemiology, public health and behavioural insights to generate practical, high-quality scientific research that leads to enduring behaviour change. 

    “The Covid2019 pandemic has pushed public health to the top of the global agenda. At RB, we see the need for a new paradigm that brings together the highest quality scientific based evidence and informed public health recommendations to generate large-scale behaviour change for a cleaner, healthier world,” said RB CEO Laxman Narasimhan. “Today we’re announcing our commitment to convene a group of multi-disciplinary experts who, like us, believe real change on a global scale is within reach if we translate science-based evidence and consumer behavioural insights into sustainable hygienic practices that can be adopted globally. This ambitious goal is the result of our belief that the highest quality hygiene is a right and not a privilege.”  

    RB’s commitment to global hygiene research and education includes: 

    A multi-year, $25 million investment in research aimed at filling the gaps in our understanding of the science-based evidence around hygiene and the behaviours and solutions necessary to sustain it. 

    The formation of an Expert Panel—comprised of cross-discipline luminaries—to guide these research efforts at leading academic institutions around the world. 

    The creation of a Global Hygiene Institute with physical infrastructure, a Governing Board supported by full-time staff, ongoing research, and education programming driven by expert researchers and educators. 

    Through the establishment of a fellowship program with leading universities, RGHI will generate practical, informed public health research and recommendations that champion global hygiene as the foundation of health. The RGHI Governing Board will determine specific areas for research and will work with the Expert Panel to award the fellowships to promising early career academics, who will become Reckitt Fellows. In addition to the fellowships, the Institute will award grants to institutions for open, collaborative, cross-functional research. The Expert Panel will further define the parameters of these awards. 

    RB is honored to announce the founding members of the governing board and expert panel including: 

    Professor Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine 

    Dame Sally Davies, master of Trinity College, Cambridge 

    Professor Feng Cheng, research center for public health, Tsinghua University School of Medicine, Tsinghua 

    Dr Randeep Guleria, Director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) 

    Professor Dr Albert Ko, department chair and professor of epidemiology, Yale School of Medicine  

    Professor Teo Yik Ying, Dean, Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore 

    “The purpose of RB—to protect, heal, and nurture in the relentless pursuit of a cleaner, healthier world—resonates more than ever in the current environment. I am excited to work with the Expert Panel and combine the deep experience in their respective fields with RB’s expertise in hygiene and consumer behaviours,” said RB chief safety officer Simon Sinclair, who has been named executive director of RGHI. “We look forward to partnering across disciplines and geographies to generate the information necessary to support the right behaviour changes for a healthier world.” 

    Updates about RGHI are forthcoming as additional details about the initiative are confirmed. The formal launch of the Institute will be in the autumn of 2020.  

    Follow Tellychakkar for the consumer facing news & entertainment

  • Reckitt Benckiser commits £32 mn as a part of ‘RB Fight for Access Fund’ to fight against Covid-19

    Reckitt Benckiser commits £32 mn as a part of ‘RB Fight for Access Fund’ to fight against Covid-19

    MUMBAI: Reckitt Benckiser (RB), a consumer health and hygiene company, today launched the RB fight for access fund to improve access to health, hygiene and nutrition for all. As part of this fund, an additional £32 million has been mobilized to address the urgent collective fight against the spread of Covid-19 by breaking the chain of this fast-spreading infection. The fund is, and will, be a demonstration of RB’s purpose and fight in action- to protect, heal and nurture in the relentless pursuit of a cleaner, healthier world.

    Recognising that awareness and availability are the biggest challenges in the current scenarios, RB India, commenced various activities utilizing the fund, focusing on consumers engagements to share information and product distribution.  Other activities deploying the fund through our brands include:

    Making the products available to the ones in need:

    We will be distributing 10 million units of Dettol Soap to the most vulnerable within India

    Dettol in partnership with Bikers for Good launched #HandWashCorona, a public health initiative amidst the raging spread of COVID-19. Under this campaign, volunteers rode within the streets of New Delhi-NCR and distributed 9 lakh Dettol soaps to families in weaker/unprivileged communities.

    We will also be donating 1 million litres of our disinfectant products including Lizol disinfectant liquid and Harpic toilet cleaners to aid India’s states in fighting this crisis especially in public health institutions and at the frontline with health and sanitation workers. 

    Donating critical protection equipment – 3.5 million N95 masks with a focus on pharmacists and health care workers. These will be distributed across our major markets.

    The Dettol India The Hand Wash Challenge campaign on TikTok reached 20 billion views in one week getting important behaviour change messages to young people on the necessity of handwashing. The record-breaking campaign is being rolled out across global markets

    Mass outreach through informative advertisement on TV: Dettol in partnership with leading Bollywood actress, Madhur Dixit released an engaging public service announcement #ApniSurkashaApneHaath to encourage viewers to practice handwashing.

    RB global CEO Laxman Narasimhan said, 'We have a 200-year history of making a material difference to the lives of our consumers. Our brands have a critical role to play in promoting hygiene and health in the fight against the current Covid-19 pandemic. I have been witness to heroic efforts across the company to live our Purpose and our Fight. I am in awe of the 'can do' attitude across the RB organisation and the relentless pursuit by my colleagues to make the world cleaner and healthier. Under this initiative, in India, we will donate 10 million bars of Dettol soap to the most vulnerable, 3.5 million N95 (medical grade) masks to frontline health workers as well as 1 million litres of disinfectant products like Lizol surface cleaner and Harpic toilet cleaners to aid public health institutions and frontline health and sanitation workers in different states who are fighting to keep the nation safe. We will continue to partner with the government on driving behaviour change and supporting the great partnership we have developed through the Dettol BSI campaign.”

    The RB Fight for Access Fund will benefit from 50 per cent funding from corporate, matched by funding from each of the three business units, Hygiene, Health and Nutrition. The maximum amount for any one initiative will be capped at £ 1 million. All programmes will be independently measured and captured on Goodera, central platform and repository of all the fantastic initiatives RB have globally.