Ad Campaigns
Oreo and MS Dhoni ssshhhing a billion cricket fans ahead of World Cup, say “Don’t jinx it”
Mumbai: The Men in Blue are once again going to begin their campaign to bring back the World Cup. As cricket frenzy takes over India this week, so do many rituals of Indians to help the team get what they want the most. And most times, by not talking about it. We all have a deep-rooted belief to never say a word, don’t jinx it till what you want to make happen, happens. Whether be it a new job offer, an examination outcome & most importantly winning in cricket.
Oreo & MS Dhoni have come together again to help Team India get what they want the most. Last year, Oreo had launched again in a bid to bring back the cup, like in 2011, and while we reached the semi’s, the job remained unfinished. This year, Oreo & Dhoni take on an even more playful note simply evocating people to not jinx it, building a counter-culture view to get a billion cricket-crazy fans go “shhhh” ahead of the biggest cricket tournament there is.
With Dhoni on its side, Oreo has taken a playful spin on this nuance that is deeply entrenched in our culture. The brand has launched a new campaign partnering with Dhoni again for this World Cup season. To capture the attention of the audiences in a quirky yet impactful manner, the campaign is launched in a first-of-its-kind breaking news format featuring Dhoni on prime news channels. Set on the stage of a cricket news show, the film opens with Expert Panelists on the set discussing India’s performance and chances of winning the World Cup 2023. Right then, Dhoni unexpectedly walks in and hijacks the show. His simple sermon being, ‘Oreo & he believe that no one should talk about India’s chances, till the end, till we actually get the cup’. He encourages all viewers to follow the “Oreo Bola Mat Bol” ideology. Wait till we actually get it!
To build on the excitement with cricket further, Oreo will drive contextual communication on Hotstar during the World Cup. Also, to connect with the audience in real-time, Oreo is capitalising on moment marketing with relatable content while matches are on. The #OreoBolaMatBol frenzy has already caught on with cricket fans, memes, and fan pages and consumers are resonating with the belief of not jinxing India’s chances of winning the Cup.
Speaking about this campaign, Mondelez India VP- marketing Nitin Saini said, “Following the same thought as last year with our #BringBack2011 campaign that introduced our playful version to take India to the finals, we are yet again bringing together the nation with a nostalgic and relatable twist with ‘Oreo Bola Mat Bol’ campaign. The campaign brings the nuances of watching cricket and supporting India during the nail-biting matches and aims to influence the loudest and most passionate cricket fans in the world to stay ‘silent’ about India’s performance during the most important tournament. Just like every Indian, I have followed these stereotypes over the years and the effort to un-jinx this year’s game by simply not talking about it is something I am sure we have all done or experienced in the past. We are once again partnering with everyone’s favourite, MS Dhoni, who has effortlessly brought this idea to life.”
Dhoni said, “OREO has always found the right angle to take, which is not only playful but also fits in seamlessly with India’s love for Cricket. As an athlete or sports fan, we all have certain things that we do— consciously or unconsciously, which we believe can help our favourite team win. Trying to not jinx a win by not talking is a common one but Oreo has once again brought this live in the most relatable way. It’s been fun to bring this to life with OREO just in time for the World Cup!”
Along with the TVC, the brand has also created several activations for the duration of the World Cup, as well as shorties for the digital streaming platforms.
Leo Burnett group executive creative director Mayuresh Dubhashi said, “The biggest cricketing event, the World Cup is back. And so is Oreo along with M.S. Dhoni. And this time around, we are not going to say anything at all – #OreoBolaMatBol. Because of our deep cultural belief that we don’t talk about the thing that we want the most. And we all want that one particular result out of this Cup, don’t we? We are launching a disruptive multi-platform campaign that’ll run the course of the tournament with many innovations, many firsts with the hope that the country joins us in this belief to help better our team’s chances.”
Wavemaker India chief client officer and office head, North, West and East Shekhar Banerjee said, “We are strategically choosing our message and media. While many brands may express the belief that “India will win,” we are encouraging our audience to avoid excessive optimism (or negativity) with the hashtag #OreoBolaMatBol. Whether they are engaged in cricket-related platforms or consuming content related to cricket, we will remind India to embrace our motto of #OreoBolaMatBol to ensure we do our bit to send good vibes and avert bad vibes for Team India over the next two months.”
NATIONAL: Amazon Ads has laid out a sharply tech-led vision for the advertising industry in 2026, arguing that artificial intelligence, streaming TV and creator partnerships will combine to turn brand building into a more precise, performance-driven business.
At the heart of the shift, the company says, is the fusion of AI with Amazon’s vast trove of shopping, browsing and streaming signals, allowing advertisers to move beyond blunt reach metrics to campaigns designed around real customer behaviour.
“The future of advertising is not about reaching more people, but the right people with messages that resonate,” said Amazon Ads India head and vice president Girish Prabhu. “By combining AI with deep customer insights, we help brands move from broadcasting campaigns to having meaningful conversations wherever audiences spend their time.”
One of the biggest changes, according to Amazon Ads, will be the collapse of the wall between media planning and creative development. Retail media, powered by first-party data, is increasingly shaping everything from brand discovery to final purchase, pushing marketers to design campaigns around audience insight rather than internal instinct.
AI is also moving from a support tool to a creative engine. Agentic AI, which automates and accelerates production, is expected to make high-quality creative accessible even to small businesses, compressing weeks of work into hours and giving challengers the ability to compete with larger brands on speed and scale.
Behind the scenes, AI-driven analytics will take on a bigger role in campaign optimisation, identifying patterns, spotting opportunities and recommending actions that would previously have required teams of analysts.
Streaming TV is another big battleground. With India’s video streaming audience now above 600 million and connected TV users at 129.2 million in 2025, advertisers are set to treat streaming not just as a branding channel but as a performance engine, measured increasingly by sales, sign-ups and bookings rather than just reach.
Finally, Amazon Ads sees creators and contextual advertising reshaping how brands tell stories. Creators will act less like influencers and more like long-term partners, while scene-aware ads on streaming platforms will allow brands to insert hyper-relevant offers into the flow of what viewers are watching.
Taken together, Amazon Ads argues, these shifts mark a move towards advertising that is both more human and more measurable, where AI handles the complexity, and creativity does the persuading.
