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A dusky right hand pours a long brass tadka ladle, engraved BRAND, into a burnt-orange pot engraved PRODUCT, where dal boils over a blue gas flame. To the right sits an open copper masala dabba whose lid is engraved STRATEGY. Look closer. Everything in this kitchen has a job.

My TakeBlog

Branding is the tadka.Not the curry.

Five recent brand moments, from a raised eyebrow to a dead owl, that show what brand can carry and what it can’t.

Rahul NarvekarOctober 20266 min read

Includes a 1-minute taste test

A tadka goes into an Indian dal last: spices bloomed in hot ghee and poured over the pot in about a minute. It’s the part you smell from the next room.

That’s the most useful picture I know for what brand does, and for what it can’t do.

Marketing keeps arguing about brand as if it must be everything or nothing. One camp treats it as the whole meal. The other treats it as decoration you can skip when budgets tighten. The campaigns of the last three years point to something more precise. Brand is small in volume and decisive in effect, and it only works on top of something people actually want.

Here are five of those campaigns, and what each one reveals about where brand fits.

Five brands. Five tests of what brand can carry.

  1. 01On substanceMcDonald’s vs JaguarBrand amplifies what’s already true.
  2. 02On timingAstronomerAttention cools fast. Spend it while it’s hot.
  3. 03On reachDuolingoBrand’s job is to reach people who haven’t tried you yet.
  4. 04On the ideaNetflix HouseThe best brand ideas are made of the product itself.
  5. 05On expectationSpotify WrappedThe more people look forward to something, the closer they look at it.

01 · On substance

Brand amplifies what’s already true.It can’t invent it.

Two ads with no product in them. Same move, opposite results.

January 2023 · McDonald’s UK

No burger. No restaurant.

It was the first McDonald’s UK film1 without food or a restaurant in it. A raised eyebrow stood in for the golden arches across social and TV, and for the first time in the brand’s history2, on the signs outside its restaurants.

Film: “Raise Your Arches”, created for McDonald’s UK · Agency: Leo Burnett UK · Director: Edgar Wright · Embedded from McDonald’s Pakistan’s official YouTube channel

November 2024 · Jaguar

No car.

Twenty-two months later, Jaguar launched its rebrand with models in saturated outfits, a candy-coloured landscape and the words “Copy Nothing” filling the screen. There was no car in it either.

Film: “Copy Nothing”, Jaguar, November 2024 · Created by Jaguar’s in-house creative team · Embedded via the Marketing The Rainbow YouTube channel

Both brands left the product out.Only one could afford to.

It worked

McDonald’s

Raise Your Arches, January 2023

+7.1%sales growth 2

£45M+incremental revenue 2

The curryA meal the country already knew by heart
The tadkaOne raised eyebrow

McDonald’s could leave the burger out because it had been in people’s heads for nearly fifty years. A raised eyebrow was enough to bring the whole meal back to mind.

  1. Early January 2023The arches turn into raised eyebrows on McDonald’s own channels8, before any ad runs.
  2. 13 January 2023The Edgar Wright film launches on social and TV1.
  3. Within a monthThe film passes 162 million views8.

Heard from the next room

“Brilliant 😂🔥🔥🔥”

“Notice how the lady in the opening frame is wearing the McDonald’s iconic red & yellow brand colours 👀”

Instagram comments on McDonald’s Pakistan’s Raise Your Arches reel

And beyond the comments: 2.5M+2 pieces of user-generated content across 352 countries.

It didn’t

Jaguar

Copy Nothing, November 2024

New Jaguars registered across Europe in April 7

20241,961
202549

Down 97.5% in a year

The curryNo new cars on sale at home, and only a concept to show
The tadkaA film of models with no car in sight

Its managing director said Jaguar needed to “attract a new customer base4”. But a brand can only recruit new buyers to a product they can see.

  1. November 2024New Jaguar sales end in the UK3, ahead of the relaunch.
  2. 19 November 2024“Copy Nothing” launches. By May 2025 it has 171 million views on X5.
  3. 2 December 2024A car finally appears: the Type 00, a concept that isn’t for sale6.
  4. April 202549 new Jaguars7 are registered across the whole of Europe.

Heard from the next room

“This is the most colourful funeral I’ve ever watched.”

“Don’t worry, Jaguar. No one is going to copy you.”

YouTube comments on “Jaguar Type 00 | Copy Nothing Miami”, Jaguar’s official channel, December 2024

Leaving the product out only workswhen everyone can already picture it.

A product people can already picture earns brand the right to leave it out. It doesn’t tell you when to move.

Continue to 02, Astronomer

02 · On timing

Attention cools fast.Spend it while it’s hot.

A data company most people had never heard of got nine days of everyone’s attention. It spent them explaining its product.

July 2025

What happened to Astronomer What Astronomer did

14 15 18 20 22 23 26 27

Nine days from the kiss cam to the video.

25 July 2025 · Astronomer

“Thank you for your interest in Astronomer.”

Instead of a statement, the company released a short video. Gwyneth Paltrow, the ex-wife of Coldplay’s lead singer, introduced herself as hired “on a very temporary basis to speak on behalf of the 300-plus employees at Astronomer11”. Then she answered the internet’s questions by explaining the product. Ryan Reynolds’ production company, Maximum Effort12, helped make it. It went live nine days after the concert.

Film: “Thank you for your interest in Astronomer”, July 2025 · Produced with Maximum Effort · Embedded from Astronomer’s official YouTube channel

What everyone wanted to know

  • Who were the two people on the big screen?
  • What happens to the company now?
  • Is anyone at Astronomer okay?

What Astronomer told them

“Yes, Astronomer is the best place to run Apache Airflow, unifying the experience of running data, ML and AI pipelines at scale.”

Gwyneth Paltrow, in the video · reported by FOX11

Everyone asked about the scandal.Astronomer answered with the product.

A small purple plinth on cream: a cream card engraved Thank you for your interest in Astronomer, a gold desk calendar showing July 25, a gold microphone and a small gold star.
It worked

Astronomer

Thank you for your interest, July 2025

The curryA real data product, finally in front of millions of people who’d never heard of it
The tadkaOne short video, made in days, that never mentioned the scandal

In B2B, attention is the scarcest thing you can buy. Astronomer got it free for nine days, and spent it on the one thing that lasts: what the product does.

Heard from the next room

“one of the best comms pieces of the year”

David Gianatasio, Muse by Clios12, July 2025

The window for a moment like this is measured in days.A week later, it’s just leftovers.

Astronomer spent attention that landed on it. Duolingo created its own, and aimed it at people who had never used the app.

Continue to 03, Duolingo

03 · On reach

Brand’s job is to reachpeople who haven’t tried you yet.

Duolingo faked its mascot’s death for two weeks. The whole internet came to the funeral, and the only way in was a lesson.

11 February 2025 · Duolingo

“Duo is dead.”

Duolingo told the world its owl had died, switched its profile pictures to a dead Duo and added: “Tbh, he probably died waiting for you to do your lesson, but what do we know.13”

Post: Duolingo, February 2025 · Embedded from Duolingo’s official Instagram · View on Instagram

The two weeks that followed

A Cybertruck, a eulogy, a way back.

The cause of death turned out to be a Cybertruck. The CEO delivered a eulogy, and users were handed a way to bring Duo back: earn XP by doing lessons14.

Reel: Duolingo, February 2025 · Embedded from Duolingo’s official Instagram · View on Instagram

Who the news reached

1Duolingo’s own users

“How am I supposed to focus on my lesson when DUO IS DEAD??”

Duolingo replied“In honor of our dearly departed”

Comment and brand reply on Duolingo’s Instagram reel, February 2025

2Other brands and stars

Netflix“duo the owl has been eliminated15”

Dua Lipa“Til’ death duo part 💔16”

3People who had never used the app

+38%Android downloads the day after 14

1.7Borganic impressions 17

50,921,342,438

0Goal: 50 billion XP 20

XP earned by users to bring Duo back. Every point of it came from a lesson. 18

The stunt travelled everywhere.Every road led back to a lesson.

A small green plinth on cream, set like a memorial: a cream card engraved In loving memory, Your lesson is waiting, a white lily wreath with a black bow, a lit candle in a brass holder and a single green feather.
It worked

Duolingo

The death of Duo, February 2025

The curryThe daily lesson and the streak, the habit people actually pay for
The tadkaA fake funeral for a green owl

In Japan, where joking about death doesn’t land, Duo never died19. They knew which jokes travel and which don’t.

46.6Mdaily active users that quarter 17

+49%on the year before 17

Duolingo’s own shareholder letter says the campaign “drove a meaningful lift in new and resurrected users17”.

Reach is the easy part.Making it lead back to the product is the work.

Duolingo’s stunt borrowed the internet for two weeks. Netflix built something you can walk into, out of nothing but its own shows.

Continue to 04, Netflix House

04 · On the idea

The best brand ideasare made of the product itself.

Netflix didn’t build a showroom for its brand. It built a building out of its shows.

12 November 2025 · Netflix House, King of Prussia

“Now come to ours.”

Netflix turned more than 100,000 square feet22 of a Philadelphia-area mall into a permanent venue. It’s free to enter21. A second venue opened in Dallas a month later24, and Las Vegas is planned for 202722.

Film: “Step Inside Netflix | Welcome to Netflix House”, 2025 · Netflix’s own description: “For years, you’ve invited us into your house… Now come to ours.” · Embedded from Netflix’s official YouTube channel

The stone facade of Netflix House at dusk, a lit red entrance canopy below a tall screen showing a Squid Game doll.
Outside, at dusk
A glowing red staircase between walls covered in giant props from Netflix shows, including Thing from Wednesday and a Stranger Things alphabet wall.
The entrance staircase, Netflix House Dallas
A recreated attic dorm room from Wednesday, with a round spider-web stained-glass window between two halves of the room.
A dorm room from Wednesday, rebuilt
Visitors walk past a lit carousel and a chalkboard map reading Eve of the Outcasts, under bare trees and string lights.
Eve of the Outcasts

Netflix House press photos

Ingredients

Netflix House, King of Prussia · 100,000+ sq ft

Eve of the Outcasts
Wednesday
Quest for the Devil Fruit
One Piece
VR games
Stranger Things, Squid Game, Rebel Moon
Mini golf
Bridgerton, Is It Cake?, WWE
Netflix Bites
Dishes from the shows, like Squid Game’s “Red Bite, Green Bite” chicken
Tudum Theater
229 seats for screenings and live events

Every room is something you can already stream.

From Netflix21, TheWrap24, Visit King of Prussia25 and TIME22

Anyone can rent a building.Only Netflix could fill this one.

A black and red plinth on cream: a cream card engraved Now come to ours, Netflix House, a cream ticket stamped Admit one, a small black house with its door open and warm light inside, and a cluster of popcorn.
Early signs

Netflix House

Philadelphia and Dallas, from November 2025

The curryThe shows people already binge
The tadkaA building made entirely out of them

From Netflix’s CMO

“We think about it as fandom come to life.”

Marian Lee, Netflix, to TIME22

2venues open within a month 24

2027Las Vegas, the third, is planned 22

TIME named it one of the World’s Greatest Places of 202622.

The honest risk

“One of the keys to success will be to keep the offer refreshed, so that it keeps people coming back to what’s new.”

Neil Saunders, GlobalData, to CNN23, June 2024

Competitors can copy the idea.They can’t copy the ingredients.

Netflix shows what brand can do when the product is rich. Spotify shows, two years running, what happens when it thins.

Continue to 05, Spotify Wrapped

05 · On expectation

The more people look forward to something,the closer they look at it.

Same brand, same ritual, one year apart. The first year, people complained within hours. The next, they shared it 500 million times in a day.

What people posted

“spotify wrapped flopped this year so bad like where are the music cities, the playlists, the top genres or the listening auras… all that wait for WHAT”

“Spotify Wrapped gets worse every year”

December 2024 · Spotify Wrapped

“all that wait for WHAT”

Wrapped dropped top genres27 and leaned on an AI-generated podcast26. One post saying it flopped passed 100,000 likes27.

Posts on X, December 2024, as reported by Forbes Australia27 and The Yorkshire Post28 · Posters kept anonymous

December 2025 · Spotify Wrapped

Its biggest Wrapped yet.

Top genres came back29, Top Albums arrived, and nearly a dozen new features with them. In India, Emraan Hashmi and Raghav Juyal fronted the film.

Film: “What your top song says about you ft. Emraan x Raghav”, Spotify India, 2025 · Agency: Kulfi Collective · Embedded from Spotify India’s YouTube channel

Hours to reach 200 million engaged users 26

202462 hours
202524 hours

500M+shares on day one in 2025, up 41% 26

Spotify didn’t change the wrapping.It changed what was inside.

A green plinth on cream with two black gift boxes tied in green ribbon. The one tagged 2024 holds only crumpled tissue. The one tagged 2025 bursts with a vinyl record, a cassette, headphones and music notes. A cream card in front reads Same wrapping, different inside.
It didn’t

2024

Spotify Wrapped

The tadkaThe same annual ritual
The curryThinner, with top genres gone and an AI podcast in their place
It worked

2025

Spotify Wrapped

The tadkaThe same annual ritual
The curryRestored, with top genres back, Top Albums and Wrapped Party

“rooted in human creativity and connection”

Marc Hazan, Spotify, on Wrapped 2025, to Music Week30

65M+views on Instagram for the India film, according to its agency’s award entry31

Anticipation works like a magnifying glass.It enlarges the gaps as much as the gifts.

Five brands, five pots. Look at them side by side and one rule is left standing.

Continue to the close

The verdict

Brand decides who comes.The product decides who comes back.

Put the five side by side and the pattern is hard to miss. McDonald’s, Astronomer and Duolingo poured brand over something people already wanted, and it travelled. Jaguar poured it over a car nobody could buy. Spotify thinned what was underneath for one December and heard about it within hours. Netflix went further and built its brand out of the product itself.

Five pots

Every campaign in this piece, side by side

McDonald’sProductA meal people knew by heartBrandOne raised eyebrowIt worked JaguarProductNo car on saleBrandA film with no car in itIt didn’t AstronomerProductA real data productBrandOne video, nine days laterIt worked DuolingoProductThe daily lessonBrandA fake funeralIt worked Netflix HouseProductShows people already bingeBrandA building made of themEarly signs Spotify 2024ProductA thinner WrappedBrandThe same ritualIt didn’t Spotify 2025ProductWrapped restoredBrandThe same ritualIt worked

Every time it worked, the product was already in the pot.

Where the metaphor breaks

Every metaphor has a limit. This one has two, and they matter more than anything else in this piece.

Break 1

In the kitchenA tadka goes in once.

In brand

Brand goes in every season.

And the product underneath keeps changing. That’s why Spotify could lose one December and win the next, and why Netflix will have to keep its rooms fresh.

Break 2

In the kitchenYou can taste the dal before the tadka goes in.

In brand

In B2B, nobody tastes anything until they agree to a meeting.

That’s where brand does more than add flavour. It decides whether anyone lifts the lid at all. Astronomer got that chance by accident. Most companies have to build it on purpose.

Brand is never optional.It’s just never enough on its own.

Your turn · one minute

The taste test

Your brand, judged like the five.Think of a brand you work on, or one you buy from. Five questions, one for each story.

  1. 1 of 5

    Take the product out of your ad. Would people still know what you sell?

    Press Y or N, or swipe on a phone

  2. 2 of 5

    If everyone looked at you tomorrow, could you explain your product in one sentence?

    Press Y or N, or swipe on a phone

  3. 3 of 5

    When your brand gets noticed, does it lead people to try the product?

    Press Y or N, or swipe on a phone

  4. 4 of 5

    Is your big idea made of the product, or just placed next to it?

    Press Y or N, or swipe on a phone

  5. 5 of 5

    Would your most loyal customers notice if the product got thinner?

    Press Y or N, or swipe on a phone

An upscale dining table after a meal. On a linen runner sits the burnt-orange pot engraved PRODUCT, scraped almost clean, the brass ladle engraved BRAND resting in it, and the closed copper dabba engraved STRATEGY. Around them, empty plates with traces of dal and a piece of roti, a stack of used katoris and a folded napkin.

People come for the tadka.They come back for the curry.

If your brand has a curry problem or a tadka problem, I’d like to hear about it.

Liked the tadka?Pass it on.

Tap the heart if this changed how you see brand. Then send it to someone who still treats brand as the whole meal.

Be the first to like this

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Sources· 31 references
  1. McDonald’s launches Raise Your Arches campaign, the first not to feature the firm’s restaurants or food. Mobile Marketing Magazine, 13 January 2023
  2. Raise Your Arches. Cannes Lions awards entry (LIONS: Love the Work). Cannes Lions award entry, Leo Burnett London for McDonald’s
  3. Jaguar no longer sells any new cars in UK, and won’t until 2026. Autocar, 1 November 2024
  4. Jaguar boss on the rebrand, quoting his Financial Times interview. Rawdon Glover to the Financial Times, reported by PinkNews, 25 November 2024
  5. Jaguar is going on a world tour to sell its controversial rebrand to wealthy art lovers. Fortune, 22 May 2025
  6. Jaguar unveils Type 00 EV concept at Miami Art Week after major leak. DesignRush News, December 2024
  7. New Jaguar registrations were hilariously low last month. Motor1, May 2025, citing ACEA registration data
  8. Raise Your Arches: challenge, insight, idea and results. Leo Burnett UK, Raise Your Arches case study
  9. Astronomer HR chief resigns days after viral Coldplay kiss cam scandal. KTVU (FOX), 24 July 2025
  10. Astronomer’s new CEO on the Coldplay kiss cam video. UPI, 21 July 2025
  11. Gwyneth Paltrow speaks as Astronomer’s temporary spokesperson in post-scandal video. FOX 9, 25 July 2025
  12. Advantage: Astronomer! Gwyneth Paltrow made a great kiss-cam response. Muse by Clios, July 2025
  13. Duo, the Duolingo owl, has died, company says. Gray News via WECT, 12 February 2025
  14. Duolingo ‘killed’ its mascot with a Cybertruck, and it’s going weirdly well. TechCrunch, 18 February 2025, citing Similarweb
  15. Pittsburgh-based Duolingo announces death of Duo, its owl mascot. WPXI, 11 February 2025
  16. Til’ death duo part. Dua Lipa’s reply to Duolingo. Dua Lipa on X, 12 February 2025
  17. Duolingo first quarter 2025 shareholder letter. Duolingo Q1 2025 shareholder letter, SEC filing
  18. Duolingo’s owl mascot is alive after all. What did it gain from faking his death? NPR via WUSF, 26 February 2025
  19. Duolingo killed its cartoon owl mascot for another unhinged marketing stunt, except in one country. Business Insider, February 2025
  20. Duolingo’s owl is “dead”, but you can bring him back. Good Things Guy, 24 February 2025
  21. Netflix House Philadelphia is now open: welcome to our home. Netflix via PR Newswire, 12 November 2025
  22. Netflix House. TIME, World’s Greatest Places 2026
  23. Netflix to open 2 massive venues with experiences, shops themed to its shows. CNN via KVIA, 19 June 2024
  24. Netflix sets winter openings for Dallas and Philadelphia live experience locations. TheWrap, 25 August 2025
  25. Now open: Netflix House. Visit King of Prussia, 13 November 2025
  26. Spotify says Wrapped 2025 is its biggest yet, with 200M+ users in its first day. TechCrunch, 4 December 2025
  27. Spotify Wrapped is here for 2024, and users are furious. Forbes Australia, December 2024
  28. Spotify Wrapped 2024: users are all saying the same thing about ‘missing’ Wrapped feature. The Yorkshire Post, 4 December 2024
  29. Did Spotify Wrapped just make a comeback? Rolling Stone Australia, 5 December 2025
  30. Spotify Wrapped 2025 was biggest ever with 200 million engaged users. Music Week, December 2025
  31. Spotify Wrapped: What your top song says about you ft. Emraan x Raghav. Kyoorius Creative Awards 2026, Kulfi Collective for Spotify India

Let's talk

Every brand has a moment of choice.I'd like to hear about yours.

Download CV See the work
Rahul Narvekar, seated at a table, smiling at the camera.
Rahul Narvekar, brand and category marketing, Mumbai
  1. The ideaWhat does brand actually do?
  2. 01 · On substanceCan brand invent a product?
  3. 02 · On timingHow fast can a brand move?
  4. 03 · On reachHow far can a brand travel?
  5. 04 · On the ideaWhat should brand be made of?
  6. 05 · On expectationWhat happens when the product thins?
  7. The verdictSo what’s the rule?
  8. The taste testIs your brand ready?
  9. TalkWorth a conversation?
What does brand actually do?