Ad Campaigns
McDonald’s launches multi-nation campaign #StoriesThatTakeYouForward
Mumbai: With an aim to celebrate the success of female employees and to foster the culture of diversity, McDonald’s launched a unique multi-nation campaign with the umbrella thought that ‘Inspiring Women, Inspire Women’. Six countries of McDonald’s in the APMEA region including India (S&W), India (N&E), Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Vietnam, Taiwan and Thailand, came together to narrate #StoriesThatTakeYouForward campaign bringing to fore real inspiring stories from real voices, driving real impact. The campaign focuses on the women’s commitment to creating opportunities for themselves and others in the company while also celebrating the accomplishments of some of McDonald’s inspiring women who serve as role models for many.
Taking the center-stage, these women spoke about their journeys, ambitions, dreams, day at work, families, break time and how they encourage other crew members at the restaurants. These reels are followed by bite-sized Instagram stories throughout the day, highlighting the fact that wherever our women may be, their passion, dreams, and determination to make it happen are the same.
Westlife Foodworld managing director Smita Jatia said, “We at McDonald’s India place utmost importance on promoting a culture of gender equality and diversity. We recognize and celebrate the essential role of women in our workforce and are ever committed to creating equal opportunities that empower our employees and foster an inclusive culture that provides a level playing field.”
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.
