Ad Campaigns
Bhima Jewellers breaks stereotypes with its ‘Pure as Love’ campaign
MUMBAI: What is it like to be trapped in a body that you feel does not belong to you? To have your own inner and outer selves conflict with each other? And if that were not enough, to have the society look at you as a queer. These are emotions and thought processes that transgender persons and LGBTQAI+ individuals go through in India. Despite the top court unanimously decriminalising homosexuality in 2018, our society still has a long way to go in putting an end to the discrimination and prejudice that the LGBTQAI+ community faces every day.
Which is why a new ad from Bhima Jewellers is charting new grounds.
The film with the tagline “Pure as Love” depicts a transgender woman struggling to come to terms with her internal conflicts, of having feelings akin to a female while being in a male body. Gradually, she comes to terms with her true self and is able to accept herself for who she truly is. And even more significantly, she is unconditionally supported through her journey of self-discovery by her family.
Through the ad, the 96-year-old Kerala-based Bhima Jewellers has respectfully and tastefully dealt with a sensitive subject matter, one which even brands with a contemporary and ‘woke’ sensibility shy away from. What makes the film even more significant is that it is for a jewellery brand – a product which has for long been conventionally associated with female beauty and adornment. For a jewellery brand to take a stand on the issue of breaking down stereotypes associated with its products is nothing short of path breaking.
The creative showcases with great sensitivity how crucial it is for an individual’s sense of self-worth to be understood and accepted by their loved ones, be it family, friends or their immediate neighbourhood. Sprinkled with heartwarming moments, the advert portrays how beautiful the world can be, if only we all are more accepting of one another.
And what adds to its meaningfulness and authenticity is that the brand features an actual transwoman- Meera Singhania, as opposed to a CIS-gender person, as is the norm in most mainstream movies or media that has a transgender character.
The ad is already garnering views and appreciation on social media, where it was released on Wednesday, coinciding with Vishu – the Malayali festival that marks new beginnings. Whether it will help sell the brand’s jewellery is another matter but it sure needs to be commended for daring to venture where no other jewellery brand has gone before. With some netizens even calling it ‘the watershed moment in Indian jewellery advertising’ could this just mark “a new beginning” in doing away with transphobia in our mainstream media? Let’s hope so!
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.
