Ad Campaigns
Old Spice celebrates International Men’s Day
MUMBAI: It was a mantastic day when supermodel, ace marathon runner and India Face of Old Spice, Milind Soman and Bollywood heartthrobs — Vidyut Jamwal, Rana Daggubati and Sonu Sood — came together to inspire Indian men on International Men’s Day.
The show-stoppers indulged in many manly acts to celebrate the day which in this year’s edition focuses on good health and equality while highlighting positive male.
The Mantastic Brigade also marked the grand culmination of the Smell Mantastic Campaign by unveiling the commandments that a manly man should follow — Smell Good; Be Yourself; Stay Active, Stay Fit and Respect for All.
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“Mantastic videos” that are an ode to the bolder and masculine self that every man wants to be were also showcased as part of event. Featuring Milind Soman, India’s Mantastic Man, donning different avatars of an Indian manly man across geographies, the videos have already garnered over five million views in the social media space.
“Celebration of International Men’s Day gives perfect opportunity to an increasing number of Indian men who are unleashing their masculine self! In fact, this reflects in today’s society as well, with showbiz icons, Vidyut, Sonu and Rana perfectly embodying the trend. I am happy to be the face of this irreverent campaign that will change the prevalent mindset and inspire men across India to take pride in unleashing their manlier versions,” remarked India Face of Old Spice Milind Soman.
Rana Daggubati exclaimed, “Young men are now imitating their new icons and graduating from metrosexuals to a new Manly Man era! Through our Mantastic messages, I hope Indian men take a cue and unleash a manlier avatar of themselves.”
Old Spice Country Marketing Manager Nikhil Ramesh said, “International Men’s Day is the perfect occasion to celebrate ‘Smell Mantastic’ Campaign. Old Spice’s ‘Smell Mantastic’ campaign is designed to inspire Indian men to express themselves and help unleash the manlier version of them. The Mantastic Brigade – Milind Soman, Vidyut Jamwal, Rana Daggubati and Sonu Sood – have done an amazing job of bringing alive the Old Spice campaign and its raw masculinity.”
With its new campaign, Old Spice also launched a cool range of manly scented deodorants with captivating, refreshing, and long lasting scents, all cooked up in the Old Spice scent kitchen.
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.
