Ad Campaigns
‘Suits’ star Gabriel Macht in Ballantine’s India ad campaign
MUMBAI: Scotch whisky brand Ballantine’s is all set to launch an exclusive India specific campaign with the Suits star Gabriel Macht.
With the new brand positioning of ‘Stay True,’ which will be accompanied by a marketing campaign with the tagline ‘Stay True, Leave an Impression’ featuring Macht.
Conceptualised by Ballantine’s, the ‘Stay True, Leave an Impression’ campaign serves as an invitation to the Indian consumers to express themselves in a genuine and authentic way. Authenticity, self-belief and conviction are at the heart of this new campaign.
The video-led campaign will also be integrated across print, digital and outdoor media.
The entire video is about two worlds: the world of self-belief and staying true juxtaposed by a world of sycophants with shifting loyalties. The tension between these two worlds is what brings out the brand idea of leaving a mark by being yourself, of making it to the top on your own terms.
The film does this through a depiction of a ‘day in the life of’ the corporate world – the charades, the fake smiles, the pretentious jokes and the ‘yes man-ship’ that plays out every day – as seen through the eyes of our protagonist during his journey through a typical corporate office.
The novel freeze-frame treatment further heightens this parody of power-play that the brand unequivocally disapproves of. Ballantine’s, which celebrates individuality and originality since 1827, raises a toast to the ‘real ones’ in a world full of fakes. The message: success is lasting for those who hold true.
Macht said, “It is an honour for me to shoot for Ballantine’s well-crafted campaign in line with its philosophy of ‘Stay True.’ This association is a perfect match as I truly relate to brand’s attribute of staying true to one’s character and maintaining one’s integrity. Ballantine’s is one of the finest whiskies with unique richness of character and perfect balance. It has been a memorable experience shooting for the campaign and hope the Indian audience will appreciate it too.”
Pernod Ricard India head – international brands Kartik Mohindra added, “George Ballantine stayed true and left an impression with the whiskies that he created. With this campaign, we want to continue his legacy by creating a platform that celebrates Ballantine’s and its founder’s intrinsic values. We hope to inspire people to have conviction to stay true to themselves, to follow their passions and to remain as genuine and authentic as they can be.”
Ogilvy & Mather, New Delhi executive creative director Ajay Gahlaut said, “There are the movers and the shakers who are here today and gone tomorrow. Their allegiances are based on self-gain and change with changing winds. And then there are those few who quietly go about doing what they believe in, undeflected in purpose and unswayed by criticism. These are the ones who are remembered. They are the ones who leave an indelible mark on time. They are the ones who lead by example. This film is about them.”
“There is something very inspiring about individuals who live by what they believe in. They are hard to find but they are there. This is the individual of integrity that the brand sought to associate itself with. And this is what led us to close in on Gabriel Macht. He, in a way, echoes everything that the brand stands for. There are strong affinities about who he is in real life and the character roles that he depicts in his professional life, with our brand values. So his character accentuates the stark differences between the two worlds that the film has captured. And the master stroke is the treatment of the film itself that creates a taut tension between the two worlds,” Gahlaut added.
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.
