MAM
Guest Column: The future of advertising
It’s a rare and beautiful thing these days, the truth. We’re living in a world where echo chambers and ‘what we want to believe’ determines our truth of the day. With distrust becoming the new normal, consumers are becoming masters of the art of calling bullshit, especially when it comes to brand claims, stories and advertising. The age of the naïve wide-eyed bambi-in-the-woods consumer is well and truly over. In the post-truth world, ideas like honesty, authenticity, trust will be key to earning consumer respect.
Some brands are leading the way, and here’s a few learnings from them on what ‘truthful’ advertising means:
Showing off that thing you can *undeniably* do well
Forget ‘hopes, dreams, desires’, the straight talk about great products is what people want. Brands will need to make sure they have a product that’s so compelling that its story is undeniably great. Advertising’s role would be to tell people about it in a way that they listen.
After years of trying to sell ‘happiness’ in a bottle with not-so-great results, Coca-Cola went back to selling its undeniable product truth – great taste – with its new advertising inviting consumers to ‘taste the feeling’. In fact, it’s very latest product Coke Zero Sugar (which is a big success) eschews the typical ‘lifestyle’ advertising we’ve seen associated with zero calorie drinks and goes the old-school taste-tests way. All while informing consumers not to believe it until they taste it for themselves.
Authentic self v/s piggybacking on what’s ‘cool’ or trending
Brands will need to know their place in the world rather than trying to awkwardly ‘fit in’. Know what you can authentically represent and the value that you can bring and tell those stories.
Clearasil attempted to be cool by trying to make memes about acne but what it ended up being was straight up cringeworthy. That’s when they decided to be honest about the fact that it’s a company run by skincare experts not pop-culture experts. With the new ‘We know acne, we don’t know teens’ campaign they captivated their teenage audience with refreshingly honest and entertaining communication.
Real people have flaws and the unrealistic ideals of perfection seen in advertising only serves to create distrust in the brand. Advertising will need to embrace and celebrate the ‘real’ v/s the fake.
Target’s latest swimwear collection focused on body positivity and showcased completely untouched models across sizes and shapes. It was a bold move, redefining beauty as ‘flawsome’ instead of the unattainable ideal that industry has peddled for decades.
Dropping the act
And finally, we know interruptive advertising sucks, but what sucks more is deceit. Consumers want choice and transparency when it comes to advertising. The moral of the story–in the years ahead, honesty is likely to be the most profitable policy for advertising.
The author is the chief strategy officer at ScoopWhoop Media. The views expressed are personal and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.
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Brands
AI becomes key tool for Indian travellers, Agoda report finds
68 per cent plan to use AI for trips as 33 per cent already rely on it.
MUMBAI: Holiday planning is getting a software upgrade less “Where should we go?” and more “What does the algorithm say?” Indian travellers are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to map their journeys, with new data from Agoda’s 2026 Travel Outlook Report suggesting that AI is fast becoming central to how trips are imagined, planned and booked.
While 33 per cent of respondents said they already use AI tools for travel planning, a far larger 68 per cent indicated they are likely to rely on it for their next trip pointing to a sharp acceleration in adoption in a market already comfortable with digital-first travel.
What travellers want from AI, however, goes well beyond basic search. The report shows 38 per cent are looking for recommendations on local attractions and activities, while 37 per cent expect personalised itineraries. Destination discovery remains a key use case at 29 per cent, with dining suggestions (23 per cent) and budget management (22 per cent) also emerging as practical applications.
The shift reflects a broader change in expectations AI is no longer a novelty but a planning companion expected to work across every stage of the journey, from inspiration to execution.
Trust levels appear to be keeping pace. Nearly 88 per cent of respondents said they either trust or feel neutral about AI-generated recommendations, including 53 per cent who expressed clear confidence. This builds on earlier trends, with Agoda’s 2025 survey showing nine in ten Indian travellers already using apps to book travel suggesting AI adoption is more evolution than disruption.
The company has been testing this appetite through initiatives such as its 2025 AI-powered Vacation Planner campaign, which generated customised itineraries and visuals based on user inputs, delivered with a layer of celebrity-led engagement.
For platforms like Agoda, which aggregates more than 6 million properties, over 130,000 flight routes and 300,000 travel activities, AI offers a way to navigate scale without overwhelming users turning abundance into relevance.
As AI continues to embed itself into everyday decision-making, India is emerging as a market where travel planning is not just going digital, but decisively intelligent.
