Ad Campaigns
Banjara’s latest ad calls out on racist mindset in advertising
MUMBAI: Indian’s obsession with fairer skin dates back to immigrants, conquerors and rulers from the west with fairer skin lauding it over the `local’ or native Indians which later got defined into a caste system where dalits or ‘untouchables’ often had much darker skin than the upper castes. The innate implication is that if you have fair skin, you are somewhat superior to others around you. Most of the well-known FMCG companies are encashing upon this paranoia which is deep-rooted in our culture. Such advertisements encourage the notion that a fair girl is the definition of a beautiful girl, and that this skin color would ensure that she goes through a hassle free marriage and fulfill her every dream.
To enhance it’s positioning of being known for its natural range of hair and skin care products, Banjara’s supports a movement against colour bias in India called ‘#proud of my colour.’
Commenting on the communication objective behind the new campaign, Banjara’s MD Ramesh Vishwanathan said, “We wanted to change the perception that fair skin does not mean beauty. A woman should feel gorgeous in her natural skin color. The focus of skin products should be on healthy skin and not skin lightening. The highlight of this short film will be to educate people to get over their unhealthy obsession about fairness.”
The campaign comprises a film that focuses on how most often the pressure to be “fairer” really begins at home. It captures the concerns and apprehensions that older family members have about skin colour, especially when it comes to their daughters and marriage. Many things both desirable and not so desirable start at home says Prabhakar of India/2 who scripted and directed the film meant for a largely internet audience.
A second film that captures the affinity of advertisers both large and small to only portray “fair girls” in their advertising is next on the cards. It will take on the need to look beyond colour at talent and achievement, and for that matter at the need to see beauty itself beyond color.
Sharing his views on the creative thought process, Krishna Mohan, India/2 said, “We learnt a lot from the movement against colour bias that we launched #proudofmycolour. We built a community of almost 2 Lakhs in a period of just 4 months. And the support we got from our “mavens of colour” be it the girl next door (in their hundreds) or celebrities like Padma Lakshmi, Radhika Nair, Nidhi Sunil has been astonishing”. Many of the insights from the #proudofmycolor campaign went into making of the film for Banjara’s Skin +ive. Perhaps this explains why the Ad has resonated with audiences across the country and has recorded more than 3 million hits in under a week.
The music composed by Dr. Divakar Subramaniam is built around the theme; you can’t judge beauty by colour, and specially created to enhance the desired message. The film has been shot by INDIA/2 Productions and will play on prominent online mediums and cinemas as part of its outreach plans. The strategic promotion of the film on the internet has been crafted by Manish Sinha and Arvind Jha of ParikshaLabs.
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.
