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Four Indian entries to contest in Cannes Lions Promo & Activation category
MUMBAI: Four entries from India have made it to the shortlist of the Cannes Lions 2012 Promo and activations category.
These include JWT‘s work for Times of India Kerala titled God‘ Own Delivery Boys, DDB Mudra Group‘s The Killing Stapler campaign for the Sanctuary Magazine, The Door Step School‘s Ink Pad initiative by Leo Burnett India and Percept/H‘s Anti Terror Bag campaign.
JWT has been shortlisted in the ‘Publications and Media‘ sub category. The campaign was carried out when Times of India launched its Kerala edition. Kerala has been dominated by language dailies like Malayala Manorama and The Mathrubhumi.
In order to grab eyeballs and enter with a bang, TOI needed a campaign that would relate to local tradition. Drawing upon ancient local folklore, the newspaper employed 108 elephant delivery boys across 10 cities from where the local editions were to be published, 126 boat delivery boys across 1,500 km of backwaters and 180 kalari warrior delivery boys across the hill country.
The campaign used local loudspeakers, postcards, posters, press ads and radio spots to announce the phone number to call for home delivery anywhere in Kerala reaching out directly to urban and rural homes across the state. More than 100,000 newspapers were delivered on the launch day with a total of 500,000 plus newspapers delivered across seven days.
The Killing Stapler campaign, which has been shortlisted in the sub category ‘Use of Guerilla Marketing in a Promotional Campaign‘, was aimed at creating awareness about the negative impact of paper wastage through printed copies on wildlife.
To reach this objective, DDB Mudra Group designed a special stapler and discreetly placed around obvious sites as a part of the environment. This stapler, when used, printed a stamp at exactly the point the stapler held the paper intact, thus making the user realise how the printout harmed the environment. The agency planted 135 staplers over a span of nine days.
Leo Burnett‘s Ink Pad campaign for Door Step School has been shortlisted in the sub category ‘Charities‘. The initiative was an effort towards increasing awareness and participation in the client‘s adult literacy drive. The objective of the promotion was to give uninterested adults the first taste of how much fun learning could be.
In order to bring illiterate adults, Leo Burnett placed a transparent sheet with cut-outs of the alphabets of Hindi (devanagari script) on top of a regular ink pad which allowed illiterate individuals to print their name. A door to door activation was conducted with the help of local volunteers, using the ink pad and thus turning the symbol of illiteracy – the thumb imprint – into a tool to write and encouraged people to enroll for the adult literacy programme.
In the Public Health and Safety, ‘Pubic Awareness Messages‘ sub category, Percept/H has been shortlisted for its anti terror awareness campaign titled the Anti-Terror Bag. With the aid of law enforcement agencies, Percept/H agency placed a special knapsack inside local trains that contained a device that would tick like a time bomb and then announce a safety message.
MAM
Brands push beyond compliance as trust takes centre stage
ASCI AdTrust Summit 2026 spotlights shift from legal checks to credibility.
MUMBAI: In a world where a disclaimer can be legally sound yet socially suspect, brands are learning that compliance may tick boxes but trust wins markets. At the inaugural ASCI AdTrust Summit 2026, a panel on “Beyond Compliance: The New Currency of Trust” unpacked a growing industry reality: the gap between what the law permits and what consumers accept is widening and fast.
Moderated by Meenakshi Ramkumar of National Law School of India University, the discussion brought together leaders across law, marketing and academia to examine how brands must evolve in a digital ecosystem increasingly shaped by scrutiny, scepticism and speed.
Ramkumar set the tone by highlighting a critical shift, advertising today operates in the same digital space that fuels misinformation, scams and fake news, making credibility harder to establish. “The challenge is not just about what brands do, but the broader context of low institutional trust,” she noted, adding that when violations go unchecked, trust erodes not just in brands but in the regulatory system itself.
This vacuum, she said, has given rise to consumer activism from boycotts to social media backlash as a parallel accountability mechanism.
For Amit Bhasin, Chief Legal Officer at Marico, the distinction was clear, legal compliance is non negotiable, but insufficient. “Compliance is the minimum threshold. The real challenge is staying aligned with changing consumer expectations,” he said.
He pointed to how advertising narratives have evolved from traditional depictions of gender roles to more shared responsibilities reflecting a broader societal shift. “Earlier, it was fine to show one person doing the household work. Today, that may not land well. Consumers expect brands to reflect reality,” Bhasin observed.
He also highlighted internal debates where campaigns that may be legally permissible are still rejected for being culturally insensitive, noting that responsible advertising often requires asking uncomfortable questions before the public does.
If compliance is the baseline, reputation is the battlefield.
Bhasin noted that reputational risk has become a far greater concern than legal exposure, particularly in an era where campaigns can be dissected within hours online. “Earlier, a controversial ad might invite a newspaper editorial. Today, within hours, you’re at the centre of a storm,” he said.
Brands, he added, now evaluate campaigns through a dual lens legal viability and reputational vulnerability with the latter often proving more decisive.
From a healthcare perspective, Satish Sahoo of Cipla Health underscored the complexity of operating within fragmented yet stringent regulatory frameworks, spanning drugs, food, cosmetics and Ayush. “Anything under a drug licence is the most tightly regulated,” he said, adding that this necessitates proactive, not reactive, compliance.
He shared an example from the oral rehydration salts (ORS) category, where Cipla resisted the temptation to position products aggressively despite competitive pressure. “Our product is WHO compliant, and our communication reflects that. We chose not to blur the lines, even if others did,” he noted.
The long term payoff, he suggested, lies in credibility built over consistency, not quick wins.
Yet, as Harsha N of National Law School of India University pointed out, even perfect compliance does not guarantee trust. Drawing from historical and modern examples from exaggerated product claims in the 1800s to contemporary environmental and health advertising, he argued that legal frameworks often lag behind consumer expectations. “A brand can be fully compliant and still be perceived as misleading,” he said, citing instances where fine print disclosures fail to reach or convince the average consumer. He added that larger companies carry a disproportionate responsibility to set ethical benchmarks, even in areas where the law remains silent.
The conversation also turned to digital advertising, where the challenge extends beyond content to how ads are experienced. From algorithmic targeting to personalised messaging, brands now operate in an environment where regulation struggles to keep pace with technology.
Sahoo noted that social media has amplified awareness, with influencers and consumers increasingly scrutinising product claims and calling out inconsistencies. “Awareness has gone up dramatically. People are questioning what goes into products and what brands are saying,” he said.
The role of self regulatory bodies such as Advertising Standards Council of India also came under the spotlight.
Harsha acknowledged that while SROs play a crucial role, they are not immune to criticism, particularly around perceived conflicts of interest and enforcement gaps. “SROs have a higher threshold of responsibility not just to interpret the law, but to anticipate societal expectations,” he said.
He added that failures in self regulation often push the burden back onto government intervention, underscoring the need for stronger, more proactive oversight.
One of the more nuanced debates centred on whether building trust comes at a cost. While Sahoo acknowledged that quality and compliance can increase costs, he argued that companies must absorb them as part of their long term strategy.
Bhasin, however, framed the challenge differently not as cost, but as competitiveness in a market where not all players play by the same rules. “The real tension is when others cut corners and you choose not to,” he said.
The panel concluded with a call to embed trust into business metrics.
Sahoo suggested that organisations must go beyond revenue targets to include consumer equity and trust based KPIs, ensuring that ethical considerations are not sidelined in the pursuit of growth. “Trust sounds abstract, but it can translate into measurable consumer equity,” he said.
As the discussion wrapped up, one message stood out: the rules of advertising are being rewritten not just by regulators, but by consumers themselves. In an ecosystem where attention is fleeting and scepticism is high, brands that merely comply may survive, but those that build trust are the ones that endure.
