Ad Campaigns
Fortune Oils breaks stereotype; gets male brand ambassador in Akshay Kumar
MUMBAI: Fortune Oils has rolled out its latest campaign, but this time with a male brand ambassador. As quirky it may sound for an oil brand to have a male endorsing the brand, Fortune Oils’ latest campaign unveils its brand ambassador Akshay Kumar. Taking forward the brand’s message, Fortune Oils’ latest TVC shows Akshay spending time with army jawans at a camp – drawing on his association and support for the Indian Army.
On interacting with the jawans, Akshay realises that one of the things they miss is home-cooked food. Overwhelmed and humbled by the soldiers’ sacrifice and commitment to keeping the nation safe, Akshay expresses his wish to cook for them. A different side of Akshay comes alive, something not seen before – his pre Bollywood avatar, Rajiv Bhatia. Akshay then proceeds to cook a delicious, just-like-home meal, including the army men’s favourites.
Conceived and executed by Ogilvy South, this film celebrates the idea of home cooked food and the emotional attachment we all have with it in a fresh and interesting story.
Ogilvy South Asia executive chairman and creative director Piyush Pandey said, “The film continues on the theme of ‘ghar ka khana’ but this time we use jawans as they are the ones who miss ghar ka khana for long extended periods away from home.”
Adani Wilmar COO Angshu Mallick added, “Fortune Oils’ communications have always been about connecting with our consumers on an emotional level. So when we were considering a brand ambassador, who better than Akshay Kumar. He is popular, likeable and relatable with people across different ages. Known to be a hardworking and conscientious person, Akshay epitomises all the values that Fortune stands for and is the perfect representative for our brand.
Ogilvy South CCO Azazul Haque points out, “The idea of choosing Akshay Kumar as a brand ambassador came from the client and we loved it. A cooking oil brand choosing a male brand ambassador was a bold and progressive decision. Also Akshay has good credibility as a food expert because of his affiliation with world famous cookery shows and his own past with the food industry.”
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.
