Ad Campaigns
Nicotex’s new ad aids smokers’ willpower to control the urge
MUMBAI: Nicotex, a brand in the smoking cessation category, has launched a new TV commercial for its Nicotine gum clearly demonstrating its scientific working action. The TVC emphasises that while willpower is critical but there are those moments where smokers tend to slip. This is where a product like Nicotex supports their willpower to help them keep going.
Cipla Health category director Anshul Mishra says, “Most smokers believe that only willpower can help them quit smoking. While having a strong willpower is essential, there are those special cigarettes or those moments where they get tempted to smoke & Nicotex can be a great support during those moments. Through this TVC we want to communicate that as your friend, Nicotex is here to support your willpower by helping you control the urge to smoke and thus help you quit smoking. Our main aim is to educate consumers as to how Nicotex is able to support their willpower by calling out the working action of the product.”
The advertisement was conceptualised and created by Soho Square Advertising and Marketing Communications, a Mumbai based advertising firm, who also created the earlier TVC as well for the brand. This particular TVC was created with the intention of communicating to aspiring quitters that Nicotex helps control the urge thereby eventually helping them quit.
“Most smokers believe that willpower is the strongest ingredient to quit smoking. So why fight that behaviour? Instead, complement the smokers willpower with the ability to control their urge to smoke. That is what we have brought alive in this piece of communication. In the most tempting of situations, a smoker can overcome his urge to smoke. After all controlling the urge is the first step to quitting smoking,” adds Soho Square executive creative director and creative head Anurag Khandelwal.
With an aim of helping smoking move toward a healthier life by reducing and eventually quitting the habit, Nicotex continues to motivate consumers with their TVC and digital campaigns.
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.
