Ad Campaigns
Swiggy and Prime Video pull a fast one on foodies with mind-bending Traitors menu
MUMBAI: When Prime Video and Swiggy say ‘taste the betrayal’, they’re not speaking metaphorically. This week, India’s top OTT giant and the country’s favourite food delivery platform joined forces to mark the launch of the reality thriller The Traitors — not with banners and billboards, but with a plate of pure deceit. The new food experience, cheekily titled ‘Dhoka Khao’, brings illusion to the menu with dishes that look like one thing but taste like another, through a playful partnership with cult favourite Louis Burger.
The campaign went live on 12 June exclusively on Swiggy’s Drops — a limited-time section of the app known for quirky culinary experiments. Available only until supplies last, the dishes rolled out in phases across Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune and Chennai.
The theatrical twist lies in two trickster dishes. First up: Two Faced Cupcake, a savoury cornbread sneakily dressed up in dessert clothing with mashed potato frosting. And then there’s Fries Over Lies, which look like your standard fries but serve up sweet flavours instead.
“Just like the show, the food in this campaign is full of surprises”, said Swiggy Ltd CBO Sidharth Bhakoo. “It’s not just about what you watch or what you eat, it’s about elevating both in a way that keeps you guessing till the very last bite”.
Massive Restaurants’ founder & MD Zorawar Kalra, who leads the Louis Burger brand, added, “With Louis Burger at the helm, we’ve crafted an experience where food meets illusion — each bite surprises, delights, and keeps you guessing, much like the show itself. These limited-edition drops are not just burgers; they’re a bold experiment in storytelling through taste”.
Kalra also praised Swiggy’s Drops as a platform for risk-taking and creativity. “Swiggy’s technology and logistics have allowed us to scale efficiently while maintaining the quality our brands are known for”, he said. “Their innovative approach offers a unique platform for our teams to experiment and engage with audiences in fresh, creative ways”.
Backed by celebrity restaurateur Kalra and Prime Video’s storytelling muscle, the ‘Dhoka Khao’ campaign isn’t just a food promo; it’s a deliciously layered metaphor for the show it promotes. The collaboration pushes the envelope on how food, fiction and fandom can collide to deliver new-age, screen-to-plate experiences.
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.
