MAM
Palmolive India urges women to ‘Say Yes To You’ in new campaign
Mumbai: Palmolive, the personal care brand from the house of Colgate-Palmolive has announced the launch of its face washes and scrubs portfolio in India with a new campaign titled ‘Say Yes To You.’ Conceptualised by Red Fuse Communications – a WPP agency, the campaign aims to inspire women for ‘self-love.’
“The campaign reiterates the brand’s core message that Indian women, who have been conditioned to prioritise everything and everyone but themselves, need to indulge more and make self-care a priority every day,” said the brand in a statement.
The three ad film series features multitasking women; a working mother, a woman hosting people, and a working millennial’s day off, who settle for nothing but the best when it comes to their family and work responsibilities. The ad films showcase how amidst all the chaos that is their life, their moment of self-indulgence comes in the form of the brand’s new range of face products that offer them the care and pampering they deserve.
The campaign films, produced by Fingerprint Films, depict a series of situations celebrating women luxuriating in their chosen moments of pause and normalises women prioritising themselves.
“We saw a clear white space in the face cleansing segment. Current brands were speaking to the modern Indian woman as if she was just a skin type or a skin problem,” said Colgate-Palmolive (India) VP of marketing Arvind Chintamani. “With this campaign, Palmolive speaks to women with a message and tonality that is authentic, real and purposive to what women are feeling today. We sincerely believe brands have a responsibility to communicate with purpose and products have a responsibility to deliver on the promises they make.”
“Whilst our primary aim was to land the idea of women saying yes to themselves… it was equally important for us to ensure we were saying yes to women across all geographies, age groups and life stages… and saying yes to us in all our myriad shapes and colors and sizes,” stated Red Fuse (WPP integrated agency) executive creative director Delna Sethna. “This is not just a launch of a brand new beauty brand but a labor of love for the creative women who have been instrumental in shaping this narrative!”
MAM
VML India lands two finalist spots at Cairns Hatchlings 2026
The Mumbai agency is back in Australia with two teams, a UN brief and 24 hours to impress
MUMBAI: VML India is heading to Australia again. The Mumbai-based creative agency has secured two finalist spots at the Cairns Hatchlings 2026 competition, one in the Audio category and one in Design, making it the only Indian agency to have reached the finals in both editions of the contest since its launch in 2025.
Four people will make the trip. Senior copywriter Shilpi Dey and senior art director Raj Thakkar will compete in Audio. Art directors Shabbir and Shruti Negi will go head-to-head with the world’s best in Design. The finals take place at the Cairns Convention Centre from 13th May, culminating in an awards ceremony on 15th May.
The work that got them there is worth examining. For the Audio category, Dey and Thakkar tackled a brief for LIVE LIKE MMAD with a campaign called Inner Voice, Interrupted. Using spatial audio techniques, the campaign recreates the overwhelming self-doubt that descends after a long workday, physically panning negative thoughts left and right before cutting the noise entirely to reveal a confident inner voice. Strategically targeted at commuters via Spotify during evening rush hours, the campaign reframes the hours after work as an opportunity for personal growth and charitable action.
For the Design category, Shabbir and Negi worked on a brief for Canteen’s Bandanna Day, a campaign highlighting how cancer pushes teenagers out of their own defining moments. Using a pixelated design language to create stark contrast between a blurred world of isolation and a focused world of connection, the campaign, titled The Flipside of Cancer, shows teenagers fading into the background of birthdays, skateparks and school proms. As a Canteen bandanna appears, the blur flips and the teenager snaps back into sharp focus.
Kalpesh Patankar, group chief creative officer of VML India, made no attempt to disguise his satisfaction. “We are immensely proud to see our teams consistently excel on the Cairns Hatchlings platform since its inception,” he said. “They have masterfully tackled challenging briefs across diverse categories, demonstrating both layered storytelling and a unique creative approach. This exceptional teamwork is truly inspiring.”
Dey and Thakkar, returning to the finals after last year’s run, were candid about the demands of the audio medium. “It’s one of the most demanding mediums, where we only have a few seconds to capture a listener’s world with sound alone, so absolute clarity is essential,” they said. “The true measure of creative work is its ability to create positive change, and our audio submission was made to help those who need it most while encouraging people to silence the inner voices that hold them back.”
Shabbir and Negi, competing in Design for the first time, described the experience as “a completely different beast.” “We see it as an opportunity to showcase our expertise, raise the bar, and challenge ourselves in new ways, while also learning from creative minds from across the globe,” they said.
In Australia, the four finalists will face a live 24-hour brief from the United Nations before presenting in a live pitch session. Twenty-four hours, one brief, one shot. VML India has been here before. It knows exactly what is at stake.
