Why does Indian advertising keep agreeing that its agency business model is broken and then keep behaving exactly the same way? In Episode 34 of The Indian AdGeek, Vishal Mehra turns the questions on Prasad Sangameshwaran, Editor of ET Brand Equity, for a wide-ranging conversation about the economics, power structures and future of Indian advertising. Prasad discusses why agencies have underpriced themselves, how procurement has changed the agency-client relationship, why the industry failed to make pitch fees stick, what the decline of the traditional AOR model means for brands, and why independent agencies increasingly have an advantage over large networks. The conversation also goes inside advertising trade media: editorial independence, the economics of industry events, whether Cannes Lions still delivers enough value, how AI is changing publishing and discovery, the rise of micro-dramas, and where long-form storytelling could go next. And perhaps the biggest question of all: if advertising is brilliant at repositioning brands, why has it done such a poor job of positioning its own value? A candid look at Indian advertising from someone who has spent decades watching, questioning and documenting the industry from the front row. The Indian AdGeek streams on all podcast apps. Vishal Mehra - @vishal1mehra