Power Ahead

Read the campaign story

Great Learning launched its first Power Ahead television campaign in August 2020. The brand release describes former classmates who become colleagues in different positions, using that contrast to introduce continued learning. It credits Abhijit Avasthi and Prasoon Pandey. Later that year, Virat Kohli appeared in films under the same platform. The initial workplace story and subsequent sports-led expressions are grouped as one family, not separate campaign entries.

Editorial interpretation: a familiar comparison between peers can make an abstract idea about skills feel immediate. A sports figure offers another route to the same theme by invoking repeated practice. Both devices can attract attention, but neither proves that learning alone determines career position. The useful adaptation is to make improvement observable at the level of a task, while avoiding the implication that a person’s status measures their effort, intelligence or worth.

The release’s career-advancement claims and learner totals are not independent evidence of campaign effects or course effectiveness. The workplace story is advertising, not a controlled comparison of educational outcomes. This study does not endorse a programme, credential or employment promise. The proposed test uses a low-stakes fictional task with consenting adults, no ranking, no workplace decisions and no collection of qualifications, salary or personal performance records.

Show a learnable action instead of a status difference

A promotion or impressive title may dramatise success, but it leaves the actual learning process invisible. Identify a specific action that someone can understand, practise and assess. A small education provider might show how a learner checks a calculation or structures a question, rather than implying that a credential changes their rank. The example should be modest enough that the evidence can support it. Ask participants what skill they believe the course teaches and how they would know they had improved. If the answer is only a better job title, the campaign needs a clearer account of learning rather than a stronger aspirational ending.

Use comparison without turning people into winners and losers

Peer comparison can create attention while making someone feel diminished for reasons unrelated to learning. Review whether the story acknowledges different circumstances and avoids equating seniority with personal value. A small team can replace a rivalry with a comparison between two approaches to the same task. That preserves the educational contrast without ranking people. In research, ask whether the message invites curiosity or creates embarrassment. Do not use participants’ actual career histories to intensify the effect. The aim is to make an opportunity understandable, not to exploit insecurity or suggest that a slower career path reflects a defective attitude.

Keep the practice analogy proportionate

Sports practice can illustrate repetition, feedback and adaptation, but a famous athlete’s career is not a forecast for a learner. Explain which part of the analogy is useful and where it ends. A small education service can show a feedback cycle in its own subject rather than borrowing the prestige of exceptional performance. Make the learning requirements and available support visible. Evaluate whether viewers understand the process and its limits, not whether the ambassador makes success feel inevitable. An analogy should reduce confusion about how learning happens while preserving the many factors that affect outcomes outside the classroom or training exercise.

A bounded test for another brief

Proposed adaptation: an adult learning group could test two short introductions to an optional exercise in organising a fictional meeting agenda. One contrasts two task approaches; the other uses a neutral explanation of the same technique. Give everyone the same materials and time, allow withdrawal and avoid public scoring. Ask whether the introduction clarifies what can be practised and what improvement would look like. Use no real workplace information or employment comparisons. This tests task-level understanding without implying that a short exercise earns a promotion, changes professional status or demonstrates the effectiveness of a commercial programme.

Measure clarity of the learnable action, understanding of feedback and perceived social pressure. Keep any task observation separate from long-term learning or employment claims. Do not rank participants or infer individual ability.

Stop if the comparison humiliates participants, implies guaranteed advancement, uses private employment records or lets an ambassador’s achievement substitute for programme evidence.