Ad Campaigns
Neena Gupta brings quick wit and quicker healing to Cipla Health’s new campaign
MUMBAI: Cipla Health has rolled out a zippy new campaign for its flagship antiseptic brand ‘Cipladine’, casting veteran actress Neena Gupta as the face of its ‘Fast Aid Expert’ proposition. The campaign swaps predictable first-aid messaging for a punchy, pacey narrative built around speed, sass, and sharp relief.
Conceptualised by Lowe Lintas and directed by national award-winner Vivek Dubey, the campaign features Gupta as a no-nonsense boss who always stays a step ahead—mirroring Cipladine’s fast-acting formula. With Shashie Verma playing her perpetually behind-the-curve assistant, the film delivers both healing and humour in equal measure.
Gupta shared her excitement about the association, saying, “As someone who believes in tackling life head-on, I love the idea of being associated with a product that does the same. Cipladine is quick, reliable, and versatile, it reminds me of the kind of roles I enjoy doing. Being a part of this campaign was a delightful experience.”
Sharing his thoughts, MullenLowe Global Group CEO – India & Chief Strategy Officer – APAC, Subramanyeswar S. said, “Cipladine has long held the leadership position in its category, but true leadership lies not in maintaining the status quo, it lies in continuously raising the bar. We asked ourselves: how can a leader lead even more distinctively? The answer emerged in a powerful insight – speed – a critical need in first aid. That’s when we reimagined Cipladine not just as a product, but as a solution—a Fastaid expert in the world of FIRSTAID solutions.”
Lowe Lintas president (Creative) Sarvesh Raikar added, “The category of first aid solutions has been quite predictable in its problem-solution communication approach. We needed to break the clutter with a fresh tone of voice. The idea of an ultra-efficient boss and her quests to set things right without wasting time served as a perfect backdrop to launch our refreshed brand idea – to move from ‘FIRST-AID to ‘Fast-Aid’ Expert. The chronicles of Neena Gupta and her secretary Sashi Verma, directed by the national-award winning director Vivek Dubey, effortlessly bring alive our new narrative of speed, while also bringing a smile on the viewers faces.”
Launched across TV, digital, print, OOH and trade touchpoints, the campaign marks a bold shift in tone for the first-aid aisle—where speed now gets top billing.
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.
