Ad Campaigns
Sebamed attempts to show the ‘reality’ behind celeb-endorsed beauty bars
NEW DELHI: German personal care brand Sebamed, with the aim to urge customers to make informed personal care choices based on science, has launched a disruptive evidence-based Film stars kee nahi, science kee suno (Listen to science, not film stars) campaign. Created by The Womb and produced by Good Morning Films, the campaign features actress Ahana Kumra.
Launched in the 1950s as a body-cleansing solution for eczema patients, with a mild pH suitable for sensitive skin, Sebamed has had an image of a doctor-prescribed skin care solution for the longest time now. However, it seems like the brand is trying to make a bold move now, willing to directly compete with leading beauty bars. The films openly call out soaps such as Lux, Pears, and Santoor on their pH values, which are shown to be similar to detergent bar Rin.
Sebamed India head Shashi Ranjan said, “We stand for truth and transparency. During these unprecedented times, our wide portfolio of skin & haircare products with unique pH 5.5 benefit offers the new gold standard to the consumers. We remain strategically committed to investing in attracting the best talent, creating engaging brand stories and driving rapid distribution expansion across channels.”
The Womb creative partner said the brand is building a connection with its consumers through demonstration-based advertising with an honest approach. “The personal care industry has always been conditioned to follow standard beauty practices in order to make it appealing to the consumers. However, when we came across Sebamed and what the brand wanted to convey to its consumers, we decided to communicate the product truth through our campaign, without any silver coating.”
Additionally, the brand has factored in the aspect that Indian customers today are re-evaluating their choices when it comes to skincare products.
Sebamed India head of marketing Konark Gaur said, “Consumers today are looking for brands that deliver on their promise. Sebamed, a brand that stands for honesty and authenticity, wants to empower the consumers with the right information so that they can choose the best. We believe that product is always the hero and days of gimmicky advertising are counted.”
However, the campaigns yet haven’t tried to compete with this set of aware and influenced urban customers, who in the past few years have started moving towards the organic category for their skincare needs.
Interestingly, the price range for Sebamed bends more towards these premium organic brands like Biotique, Kama Ayurveda, and Forest Essentials while it is almost two-five times more expensive than the likes of Lux, Dove, and Pears.
It will be interesting to see in the coming times how this move on the part of Sebamed will impact its brand value among Indian customers.
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.
