Ad Campaigns
ITC Vivel leads conversation on gender equality
MUMBAI: ITC Vivel believes that for a more equal society, awareness of legal rights is the first step towards empowering and protecting women. It firmly believes that no one should have to compromise on their dignity, be discriminated against or denied their rights as provided by law. As part of its brand philosophy, Vivel launched a website designed for a simplified understanding of laws around women’s rights. Compiled in an FAQ format and available in English and Hindi language, Vivel seeks to empower women and enable self-action.
In the last six months, Vivel's ‘Know Your Rights’ initiative has reached more than 250 colleges and 30,000 students through active workshops across the country. Vivel hopes to inspire a collective of young individuals to be equality champions and empower others for a more gender-equal India through this outreach.
In the same vein, ITC Vivel ‘Ab Samjhauta Nahin’ hosted a power-packed panel discussion and workshop organised in partnership with the CII IWN. Speaking on the panel were Supreme Court lawyer Karuna Nundy, BJP Delhi spokesperson and vice president Shazia Ilmi, IPS 2018, 71 RR, Himachal Pradesh Cadre Ilma Afroz Oxfam International gender justice campaigner Gopika Bashi, and ITC Personal Care Division head personal wash category Subhash Balar. The conversation revolved around shifting the ‘norm’ to the ‘normal’, rising up against labels, the externalities of the person and championing change.
Karuna Nundy said, “By bringing real and concrete knowledge of legal rights to over 600 colleges – that’s at least 1 lakh people – we seek to create a tidal wave of people who are aware of their rights, claiming these rights and so forcing the system to serve its citizens. Their relationships with family, romantic partners and friends are also transforming in the process, becoming more equal. This is becoming a movement, not just by our efforts with ITC Vivel’s Ab Samjhauta Nahin, but also other efforts. We need to build on this, and fast – it is only by a circular process of claiming and exercising rights that the channel between citizens and state will become continuous and smooth.”
As part of the legal rights awareness initiative, Vivel in collaboration with Kommune introduced ‘Knock Knock’ with spoken-word poet Sainee Raj. In her piece Sainee she talks about breaking the silence and celebrating our rights. Touching upon the extremely relevant and sensitive issue of cyber security for women, she urges us to stop waiting for the world to change and start being the change ourselves.
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.
