Ad Campaigns
Hrithik Roshan portrays Arjun Vajpai’s journey in Mountain Dew ad
MUMBAI: As a brand that has always saluted the spirit of pushing ones boundaries to break out of the ordinary and achieve extraordinary success, Mountain Dew from PepsiCo is celebrating the journey of a real life hero, Arjun Vajpai through its new campaign, ‘Risk Takers of India’.
Mountain Dew is paying tribute to the young mountain climber through a never-seen-before route in advertising – that of a biopic! Hrithik Roshan, Mountain Dew’s brand ambassador essays the role of Arjun and captures his attempt at climbing Mt Cho Oyu – one of the most difficult summits to conquer.
Created by JWT India, the biopic resonates strongly with Mountain Dew’s philosophy of pushing boundaries, celebrating courage and showcasing real life heroes. The film brings to fore the spirit of carrying on in the face of challenges and be willing to step out of one’s comfort zone to achieve extraordinary results.
Speaking about his experience portraying the mountaineer, Hrithik Roshan says, “Arjun Vajpai is a true inspiration. It is rare that you come across someone who is so passionate about something and that too at such a young age. As Mountain Dew supports this unsung hero of the nation, I am proud to be the one bringing alive his illustrious journey on screen. I salute his courage and wish him luck as he gets set to conquer Mt Kangchenjunga.”
Echoing her thoughts, PepsiCo India associate director for Mountain Dew Naseeb Puri mentions, “Mountain Dew has always been about celebrating the spirit of ordinary people who push themselves to achieve extraordinary results, making a name for themselves in the process. Arjun is an embodiment of what we as Mountain Dew stand for & it is our privilege to be able to bring his inspiring story to millions of consumers across the country.”
JWT India chief creative officer Senthil Kumar adds, “Mountain Dew advertising celebrates the spirit of adventure and encourages ordinary people to make a name for themselves. This year we are bringing a brand new format in the form of a biopic TVC with the story of Arjun Vajpai. This also reflects popular culture of the recent biopics in Indian cinema. Hrithik Roshan essays the inspiring role of Arjun & the film captures the epic terrain, vulnerability & the determination of the hero as he conquers the mountain within.”
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.
