CNN and Jada Pinkett Smith join forces for a CNN Freedom Project on sex trafficking in the U.S.

In a CNN Freedom Project special report, actress and long-time advocate Jada Pinkett Smith travels to Atlanta – a trafficking hotspot - to try and unravel the complicated web of human trafficking that’s happening in the United States.

The hour-long special report is a gritty, raw look at the human trafficking industry in the United States, the lives of children caught in its web, and those fighting back against this form of modern-day slavery.

In this powerful report, Pinkett Smith and CNN delve deep into the heart of this heinous crime, following undercover officers on raids and rescues of underage victims, accompanying aid workers on outreach missions, and spending time with the survivors in shelters as they share their harrowing stories.

“For me, this project is extremely important because I want the world to understand the dangers that every kid in America is susceptible to,” Pinkett Smith says. “Human trafficking is one aspect of the vulnerabilities and obstacles that we are confronted with. People who sell children are monsters.”

Sex trafficking hit Pinkett Smith head-on when her then pre-teen daughter asked her about the crime in the United States. In disbelief, Pinkett Smith began to research and is now a vocal activist and advocate. Where does sex trafficking start? How do girls get manipulated into it? How hard is it for law enforcement and others to save them? And how can communities help protect children from the men and women who prey on their vulnerabilities?

To get answers, Pinkett Smith sits down with survivors who courageously share their horrifying stories of exploitation and the triumph of their survival.

Pinkett Smith and CNN follow Sergeant Tory Kennedy, head of the Internet Crimes Against Children Division, as he conducts undercover raids to arrest suspected traffickers and rescue underage girls.

Lisa Williams, founder of a safe house and rehabilitation facility for trafficked teens, is featured as Williams counsels the exploited teen highlighted in this special report. And Pinkett Smith comes face-to-face with a convicted female trafficker. Viewers will also hear from aid workers and prosecutors who are working to eradicate this crime.

CNN Freedom Project ‘Children for Sale: The Fight to End Human Trafficking’ was executive produced by Jennifer Hyde, the Director of the CNN Documentary Unit, produced by Senior Producer Ken Shiffman, Producer Tina Matherson, Executive Editor of the CNN Freedom Project Leif Coorlim, and overseen by Michael Bass, CNN’s Executive Vice President for Programming.

Wednesday 22 July at 4:40PM and 8:30PM IST

Saturday 25 July at 08:30AM and 06:30PM IST

An initiative to kickoff the European Football Season

To celebrate the beginning of the 2015/16 European football season, BBC World News is hosting a 5-A-side football tournament called ‘BBC World News Football Connect 2015’, bringing together teams from the top media agencies to battle it out and claim the event’s top title .

Taking place at Cooperage ground Astro Turf field in Mumbai on Friday, 17th July, BBC World News Football Connect 2015 aims to showcase the international news channel’s significant sports offer both on TV and online at BBC.com. Around 250 guests will attend the event from agencies along with CEOs as well as senior planners. The tournament will begin with league matches and conclude with a final match and an award ceremony.

As the teams take on each other on the field, there will also be plenty of action on the sidelines.  At the event there will also be two fan zones; team dugouts which will be near the playing turf and a VIP box where fans can cheer the teams and even participate in a foosball competition or try to save a penalty kick from a world champion with 3D augmented reality oculus experience.

The VIP box will also be home to the BBC World News’ Be Everywhere campaign experience. Using the latest in virtual reality technology, BBC Global News Ltd has launched a dramatic new interactive trade campaign to showcase how it delivers personal, portable and on-demand news for the digital age.

With the Be Everywhere augmented reality experience, people can join presenter Babita Sharma in a virtual studio.  The 360 experience means viewers can have a peak behind the scenes as Babita demonstrates the leading news brand’s digital products and the advertiser benefits, highlighting the BBC’s international news services’ position as a leader in digital innovation.

Looking forward to BBC World News Football Connect 2015, Naveen Jhunjhunwala, COO for BBC Global News India Ltd said:

“BBC World News Football Connect 2015 will be like a carnival for the sport enthusiasts. The event also stands for the attributes of sportsmanship and team playing that is essential in every field. With BBC World News as the global home of football and our online offer being the no1 international news site in India, it is an excellent way to grab the essence of the football season and reach millions of engaged audience. So whether people are into football, Formula One, tennis or golf we offer a truly global perspective and are on hand to bring them the action, expertise and analysis as well as capturing their passion as fans.”

As the build-up to the European football season intensifies, BBC World News will produce a series of online guides to take fans through everything from the Premier League to Serie A and Bundesliga to La Liga. BBC World News will also carry match highlights from Germany's Bundesliga, and results from all the major European football leagues. In addition, Sport Today will show sports news features on the top clubs and players, and analysis from our roster of football experts.

India.com to deploy Outbrain’s guided personalisation platform across all its digital properties including Zeenews.com, dnaindia.com, Bollywoodlife.com - delivering personalised content recommendations and real-time decision-making tools and analysis to support editorial teams

India.com, India’s third largest online publisher and Outbrain, the world’s largest content discovery platform, today announced the details of a multi-year strategic partnership.  The deal will empower the media company and its properties - including Zeenews.com, dnaindia.com, Bollywoodlife.com, Cricketcountry.com, OnCars.in, Prepsure.com, BGR.in, Careerfundas.com, TheHealthSite.com, Travel.india.com and Video.india.com - to fully leverage the Outbrain guided personalisation platform.

The platform will empower India.com to manage their own content recommendations maximizing the monetisation of their audience to other content publishers, driving increased audience engagement, and providing key insights and analytics about their core digital users.

India.com has also confirmed their plans to implement Outbrain’s recently launched product, Native In-Feed. The product, announced last month, allows publishers including India.com for the first time to use the Outbrain platform to serve native, in-stream advertising. Through Native In-Feed, Outbrain partners will now be able to sell their own campaigns and use Outbrain’s UI and tools to seamlessly deliver these campaigns to their audiences.

Sandeep Amar, Chief Operating Officer at India.com said: “We are really happy to partner with Outbrain, and use their technology and products to makes sure our users and advertisers get benefits from it. We are confident they will deliver the highest quality recommendations and best monetisation options for India.com. We look forward to bringing the Outbrain solutions to our advertising partners in India.”

Gulshan Verma, General Manager SEA & India at Outbrain, commented on the announcement: “Over the last few months, we’ve increasingly observed publishers integrating their services into their sales platforms, allowing for more native placements. Previously, most of the Outbrain content was contained in a widget at the bottom of the page but, by working with the publisher's direct sales teams, we have now started serving content in premium locations like the right rails, homepages, mobile pages, thus providing better customer experience for the reader and monetisation opportunities for publishers in India.”

Outbrain has spent the past 3 years on the ground in Asia building the largest network of premium sites for content discovery. India continues to be one of the company’s fastest growing markets.

Bachchon ki Shopping, Bachchon ka khel nahi, says Amitabh Bachchan in the new FirstCry Ad Campaign

Amitabh Bachchan to be seen in an all new avatar in the first ad campaign by the baby and kids space expert FirstCry.com

FirstCry.com, Asia’s largest baby and kids store, has today announced that Mr Amitabh Bachchan will be the face of the brand. Firstcry.com is already the leading baby and kids player with its online, mobile and 125+ offline store presence. With the campaign, the brand aims to accelerate the growth and take the brand to a much larger parent base.

Speaking about the campaign, Supam Maheshwari, CEO and founder of Firstcry.com said “Over the last 4 years we have built an omni-channel business model that serves the largest variety of baby and kids products in express time. It is now time for us to scale up the model by raising awareness of FirstCry.com and building a brand that parents love”.

The campaign, which has been conceptualized by Lowe Lintas Mumbai, works on the insight that parents feel great about having worked hard for their children, including shopping. The category is a high involvement category and FirstCry.com makes sure that parents have the best choices available both in types of products as well as numbers of products. On the one hand it means that parents are assured of finding the right product on Firstcry.com, but at the same time it makes ‘choosing one, not so easy’.

Vasudha Narayanan, Executive Creative Director at Lowe Lintas Mumbai, has this to say “Mr Bachchan has never played the role of an indulgent grandpa. And that’s why he is a perfect fit for FirstCry.com. The magic in the films comes from the silliness and love between a grandpa and his granddaughter. He finds it easier to take care of her than indulge her. Because he knows ‘bachchon ki shopping, bachchon ka khel nahin’.”

The campaign has a series of films which will have Mr. Bachchan in a never seen before avatar. The child-like fun that he had while shooting the films reflects in some of the most endearing grandfather-granddaughter moments. He is a perfect fit for the brand because he is known to be a doting grandfather, he has been a trendsetter in adopting social media and technology and, last but not the least, he brings credibility that comes with his stature.

Talking about the concept and the idea behind the ad campaign, Anuj Jain, Sr. Vice President, Marketing says, “FirstCry.com is a brand that opens up a world of possibilities beyond what Indian parents currently know, see and experience when it comes to baby and kids products. When it comes to indulging grandchildren, grandparents are miles ahead of anyone else. The need for this indulgence coupled with access to endless variety on FirstCry.com, mean Mr Bachchan keeps Firstcry.com, the ‘big store for little ones’, always handy on his mobile.”

Creative Credits

Agency: Lowe Lintas Mumbai

Creative: Vasudha Narayanan, Dasmeet Singh, Girish Mandalia

Account Management: Shantanu Sapre, Pooja Mehta, Rachna Takawale

Account Planning: Rishabha Nayyar, Abhinit Agarwal

Film Director:  Roshan Shetty

Production House: Roshan Shetty Productions

A first-of-its kind show that provides invaluable insights into the biggest deals in private equity and VC space.

On the back of a completely new look & feel of the channel, leadership numbers basis BARC and an all-new business & market programming line-up, Bloomberg TV India has always taken the lead in setting the pace by delivering cutting edge content that matters the most to its viewers. The channel is set to present an all-new show – Deal Street, a show that will decode some of India’s biggest corporate and financial deals.

Through the series, get invaluable insights into the business of deal-making, along with a ringside view of multimillion dollar deals for funding, mergers, acquisitions, buyouts and takeovers. Also, there will be a special focus on the future of India’s buzzing start-up ecosystem.

The half-hour special series will feature interviews with some of the most successful people in the industry. Industry stalwarts, who are placing some big bets on India, will discuss their deals and plans for the companies that they have bet on. In the initial weeks, the show will feature leaders like Sanjay Nayar, CEO - Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR India); Deepak Gaur, MD - SAIF Partners; Avnish Bajaj, MD - Matrix India; Renuka Ramnath, Founder, MD & CEO - Multiples Alternate Asset Management Private Limited and Sanjeev Aggarwal, Senior Managing Director, Helion Venture Partners.

Commenting on the launch of the show, Mr. Alok Nair, Executive Vice-President and Business Head, Bloomberg TV India, said, “Our strategic approach has always been to provide hard-hitting news to help our viewers take informed decisions. Taking this into consideration, the show will bring together the most promising leaders from the private equity and VC community. The show will focus on what top investors look at when they back a business or an entrepreneur, and how they ensure that their investments will pay off. Mini Menon - one of the most respected Business & Markets journalists will be driving the show. Mini’s deep engagement with the PE & VC community will put this content in the right perspective & bring together the most crucial ecosystem alive, exclusively on Bloomberg TV India."

Starting 21st July, ‘Deal Street’ will be telecast every Tuesday at 8.30pm