Ad Campaigns
Slow down with a cup of tea, says Brooke Bond Taj Mahal
MUMBAI: We live in a world that celebrates speed, where keeping busy is how we measure our happiness. We passionately make plans and feel delighted in chasing them. But the truth is, that life’s most rewarding moments aren’t found in grand plans or great adventures. Instead, they are found when we are in our own company, breaking away from our schedules, even if it's just for a while. It is these hidden moments that Taj Mahal Tea urges us to find.
With its new television commercial, aptly titled Fursat Waali Chai, the brand reminds us to hit the pause button when life becomes too hectic – to allow oneself a moment of peace and to uncover the magic in the mundane. Featuring the famed classical vocalist Nirali Kartik, the film showcases a charming conversation between her and a steaming tea kettle, wherein the tea poetically cajoles her into taking a break from her practice to savour a cuppa. Soon, Nirali gives in to temptation and enjoys sipping tea by herself while soaking in the sights and sounds of the palatial garden.
Along with being a visual delight, it's also the film’s soulful music that adds to the grandeur. The composition that has been created from Raga Asa Mand beautifully lifts the film and highlights the theme of finding magic in solitude.
Tea & foods (HUL) vice president Shiva Krishnamurthy said, “For 30 years, Brooke Bond Taj Mahal has promoted Indian classical music through memorable and iconic advertising. Through our latest TVC, we urge people to steal moments from their hectic lives and revel in their own company. Nothing could evoke that feeling better than a cup of Taj Mahal tea and the soulful rendition of Asa Mand by Nirali Kartik.”
Ogilvy India chief creative officers Harshad Rajadhyaksha and Kainaz Karmakar said, “This is a film for the senses. It is a romantic expression of every tea lover’s alone time with their best cup of tea. Music runs through the blood of this brand and will always be a very carefully crafted piece. Nirali Kartik’s voice and Prakash Varma’s vision transport us to some magical moments in this film.”
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.
