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Anand Gandhi’s brand film for Vicks wins big at Creative Circle Gong Awards, Singapore
Mumbai: After a hiatus in 2020, the Creative Circle returned with the annual Gong Awards to celebrate creative excellence in advertising. The event held on Sunday in Singapore had set this year’s theme as Create/Change. Celebrated Indian filmmaker Anand Gandhi (the maker of “Ship of Theseus” and “Tumbbad”) won silver for Best Direction for his work on the Vicks – Touch of Care Campaign. The film titled “Care Lives On” is a micro biopic of Dr Dnyaneshwar Bhosale who gave his life treating children with Covid-19.
“Dr Dnyaneshwar Bhosale dreamed of building robust, empathetic systems of care and medicine. This film is a glimpse into the vision and commitment that he had for his community,” shared Gandhi. “It’s a call to togetherness, a reminder of the debt that we as a society owe to all those who’ve perished while saving our lives. I am grateful to the people at Vicks and Publicis Singapore for getting me on board to bring this story to life.”
Gandhi has also directed several decorated, high-impact narrative brand films. His “One In a Million” film for Vicks had previously won four Cannes Lions in 2019, the most for a single campaign from India, including a Silver Lion and three Bronze Lions for Creative Strategy, Film Craft, and Film Healthcare. It also won three silvers at Spikes Asia for direction, script, and casting in the Filmcraft category. Gandhi’s Lifebuoy ‘Help a child reach 5’ campaign won Bronze Cannes Lion in 2017 for creative effectiveness, along with the ‘Grand Prix’ in PR, and ‘Silver’ in Healthcare at Spikes Asia 2016. He has also worked with Gillette, Google, and other brand partners.
MAM
ASCI study uncovers how Gen Alpha navigates ads in endless digital feeds
‘What the Sigma?’ ethnographic report maps blurred boundaries between content and commerce for 7–15-year-olds.
MUMBAI: Gen Alpha isn’t scrolling through the internet, they’re living rent-free inside its never-ending dopamine drip, and the ads have already moved in next door. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) Academy, partnering with Futurebrands Consulting, has published ‘What the Sigma?’, an immersive ethnographic study that maps how Indian children aged 7–15 (Generation Alpha) consume, interpret and live alongside media and commercial messaging in a hyper-digital environment.
The research draws on in-home interviews, sibling and peer conversations, and discussions with parents, teachers, counsellors, psychologists, marketers and kidfluencers across six cities. It examines not only what children watch but how algorithms, content creators, peers and parents shape their relationship with the constant stream of shorts, vlogs, gameplay, memes, sponsored posts and ‘kid-ified’ adult material.
Five core themes emerged:
- Discontinuous Generation, Gen Alpha is not growing up alongside the internet, they are growing up inside it. Cultural references, humour, aesthetics and language sync globally in real time, often leaving adults functionally illiterate in their children’s world. A reference that lands instantly for a 10-year-old in Mumbai or Visakhapatnam feels opaque or disjointed to most parents.
- Authority Vacuum, Parents and teachers frequently lose cultural fluency in digital spaces. The algorithm responsive, inexhaustible and perfectly attuned to preferences becomes the most attentive presence in many children’s daily lives. Rules around screen time feel increasingly difficult to enforce when adults cannot fully see or understand the content landscape.
- Digital as Society, Online and offline no longer exist as separate realms, they form one continuous reality. The phone is not a tool children pick up; it is the primary social environment they inhabit.
- Great Media Mukbang, Content flows as an ambient, boundary-less, multi-sensorial stream. Entertainment, advertising, commerce, gameplay, memes and vlogs merge into one undifferentiated feed. The line between active choice and passive absorption has largely collapsed.
- Blurred Ad Recognition, Children aged 7–12 typically recognise only the most overt advertising formats. Influencer promotions, gaming integrations and vlog sponsorships often register as organic entertainment. Children aged 13–15 show greater ad literacy but remain highly susceptible to narrative-integrated, passion-driven and emotionally resonant brand messaging. Discernment remains low across the board in a non-stop stream.
ASCI CEO and secretary general Manisha Kapoor said, “ASCI Academy’s study is an investigation into the content life of Generation Alpha not to judge them but to understand them. Their cultural reference points seem disjointed from those of earlier generations. Insights on how they perceive advertising is the first step towards building more responsible engagement frameworks, given that they are the youngest media consumers in our country right now.”
Futurebrands Consulting founder and director Santosh Desai added, “While earlier generations have been exposed to digital media, for this generation it is the world they inhabit. This report explores not only what they watch but how they are being shaped by algorithms, content and advertising.”
The study proposes four adaptive, principles-led pathways:
- Universal signposting of commercial intent using design principles that make advertising recognisable even to young audiences.
- Ecosystem-wide responsibility shared among advertisers, platforms, creators, schools and parents.
- Future-ready safeguards built directly into children’s content experiences rather than as optional background settings.
- Formal media and advertising literacy embedded in school curricula to teach age-appropriate understanding of persuasion and commercial intent.
In a feed that never pauses, Gen Alpha isn’t merely watching content, they’re swimming in an ocean where entertainment, commerce and identity swirl together. The real question isn’t whether they can spot an ad; it’s whether the adults building the ocean can agree on where the lifeguards should stand.
