Ad Campaigns
LAY’S ROPES IN INDIA’S FAVORITE YOUTH ICONS, RANBIR KAPOOR AND ALIA BHATT AS BRAND AMBASSADORS
National : LAY’S, India’s favourite potato chip brand, has announced leading Bollywood actors Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt as its brand ambassadors today. As part of the association the stars will be part of LAY’S new campaign – ‘Smile Deke Dekho’ and will be seen featuring in series of films together. The first look of the films was revealed today through a teaser on social media on the occasion of World Smile Day.
LAY’S has always been the perfect companion for every celebration and good times with friends. For over two decades, LAY’S has been on a mission to provide a joyful interruption from their busy days by bringing more smiles to consumers across the country. To further this proposition, the brand has brought its global Smile campaign to India as ‘LAY’S Smile Deke Dekho’ campaign. The campaign comes to life through new LAY’S packaging that showcases how a smile can universally connect and conveys a mood or emotion effortlessly.
As part of the campaign, LAY’S has introduced packs that feature six different smiles that capture different moods and emotions. In the teaser launched earlier today, Alia and Ranbir are seen exchanging smiles using these LAY’S packs. The teaser film released by LAY’S on social media captures Alia as she gives different types of smiles using the packs. Ranbir who appears to join in the fun photobombs the picture with a whacky smile of his own.
Commenting on the association, Mr. Dilen Gandhi, Sr Director, Marketing – Foods category, PepsiCo India, said, “We are thrilled to have Ranbir and Alia on board as brand ambassadors for LAY’S. Not only are they both amazing youth icons but also amongst the most talented actors of their generation. We are confident that combining LAY’S, one of India’s most loved brands with Ranbir and Alia’s talents will enable us to tell the kind of stories that strongly resonate with not just our consumers but the country at large.”
Talking about his association with LAY’S, popular Bollywood actor, Ranbir Kapoor said, “I have always resonated deeply with LAY’S and I’m extremely thrilled to be the face of the brand. It has seamlessly paved a way into the hearts of the young and has been a part of their fun, special and celebratory moments. The new LAY’S Smile Deke Dekho packaging is a beautiful concept and a step forward for the brand to connect with the youth. I believe that a smile goes a long way in building connections with friends and familiar people and LAY’S Smile Deke Dekho is all about the simplicity of sharing a smile.”
Expressing her excitement, leading Bollywood actress, Alia Bhatt shares, “Fun moments with friends are accompanied by packs of LAY’S and to be its brand ambassador is immensely cool and exciting! I love the new LAY’S Smile Deke Dekho packaging and it is so much fun communicating through different smiles on the packs. A smile is infectious and carries the power to instantly uplift and change the mood. I am really looking forward to start off my journey with the brand creating interesting content and storytelling.”
LAY’S Smile Deke Dekho packs are available at INR 10, 20 and 35 price points across all traditional and modern trade outlets.
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.
