Ad Campaigns
Rise up from friendzone: Pepsi and Zakir add an irreverent twist to friendship day
Mumbai: Pepsi is all set to celebrate the week of friendship in an irreverent manner. True to its spirit of being the voice of the generation, Pepsi has announced an exciting collaboration with stand-up comedian Zakir Khan. Pepsi’s witty collaboration with Khan is aimed at inspiring friends to stand by their buddies and encourage them to “Rise up” from their friendzone situation.
In this one-of-a-kind campaign, Khan encourages the youth to be true friends to each other, inspire friends to move on and steer friends away from the dreaded ‘friendzone’ – a zone that the young generation is perpetually escaping. By leveraging the power of technology, friends commenting on Zakir’s post as a cry for help for their friends in ‘friendzone’ will get a personalized message directly in their inbox that can be shared amongst friends as a pro-tip to swear by.
In the video, Zakir Khan is seen bringing his signature comedic flair to empower this young generation with an impactful narration that says, “Yeh jo friendzone hai na, yeh danger zone hai. Isse nikalo, bhaago, aur koi dost fassa hai toh use bachchao. Kyuki doston ki bhi zimmedari hoti hai. Friendzone ke chakkar se you’ve got to Rise Up Baby!”
PepsiCo India category lead- Pepsi Cola, Shailja Joshi said, “Pepsi has captivated the youth of India for decades with its irreverence and is known to rewrite the way people see popular occasions each year. Giving Friendship Day a unique twist and inspire the young generation to rise above friendzone with their friends, we could not have asked for a better fit to this campaign than Zakir, the buddy, the OG Sakht Launda. We are confident that Zakir’s comedic prowess and popularity will speak to the youth directly and encourage them to be there for their friends as they break free from friendzone along with a chilled bottle of Pepsi.”
Khan commented on his excitement to join Pepsi, “I am elated to be a part of the iconic Pepsi universe – a brand that has been my friend over the years. This campaign is all about breaking free from the friendzone and owning who you are, and I am thrilled to be the voice of this message. With humor as the driving force, we will celebrate friendship, self-expression, and the beauty of being true to oneself. I hope the audience enjoys the video and is inspired to ‘Rise Up, Baby!”
Leo Burnett India national creative director (Spiky) Vikram Pandey said, “Often when you are being friend zoned, it’s your friends who can notice it first. This insight seemed really fresh to tap into this Friendship Day for Pepsi. And who better than ‘Sakht Launda’ Zakir Khan to bring this alive. An appeal to all friends, to save their friends from being friend zoned!”
The new campaign will be amplified with a robust marketing plan including digital, social media and influencers. Pepsi® is available in single/multi-serve packs across modern and traditional retail outlets as well as on leading e-commerce platforms.
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.
