Ad Campaigns
Center fresh launches ‘Aage Badh’ campaign
Mumbai: Center fresh, Perfetti Van Melle India’s flagship gum and mints brand has launched its new “Aage Badh” campaign with Varun Dhawan as the brand ambassador. The campaign aims to inspire young people to adopt a forward-looking attitude and overcome everyday setbacks with a fresh perspective.
This collaboration between Center fresh and Varun Dhawan aims to engage and inspire audiences. Varun Dhawan showcases how Center fresh’s boost of freshness can positively impact one’s outlook on life. The campaign’s quirky storyline and uplifting message are designed to resonate with Gen Z audiences and make a lasting impression.
Perfetti Van Melle India MD Nikhil Sharma said, “With presence in close to three million outlets today, the Center fresh brand has retained its appeal to consumers over the years by being relevant and consistently refreshing its communication. We are thrilled to be partnering with Varun Dhawan for our current campaign. He delivers a sparkling performance in the TVC nicely conceived by Ogilvy and is born out of strong insight.”
Center fresh has always prioritised connecting with the younger generation, and our latest TVC with Varun Dhawan exemplifies our commitment to providing a fresh perspective and moving forward in life,” said Perfetti Van Melle India MD Gunjan Khetan. “Varun’s ability to connect with diverse audiences, particularly the youth, infuses Center fresh with a new energy that will resonate strongly with our fans.”
“I’m proud to be a part of the Center fresh family and their new campaign, Aage Badh,” said Varun Dhawan. “As someone who’s always on-the-go, I know how moving on from small, daily setbacks with a fresh perspective can really turn my day around – whether I’m on set, at a shoot, or just living life to the fullest. It always helps to just pop a center fresh and ‘Aage Badh’! This, for sure, is going to be my mantra going forward”
Commenting on the same, Ogilvy India creative director Anurag Agnihotri said, “Our message here is simple – Life’s challenges are just opportunities in disguise. Take a moment to pause, refresh, and reboot – then tackle them head-on with a clear mind and a positive attitude. Embrace the chance to grow, learn, and move forward. Simply Aage Badh Ja.”
The Aage Badh campaign, launched across television, digital, and social media platforms, is designed to resonate with young audiences who embrace the mantra of moving forward despite daily setbacks. Center fresh encourages today’s youth to stay positive, adapt to change, and live life to the fullest.
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.
