Ad Campaigns

Akshay Kumar urges working with precautions in govt’s new Covid2019 messaging

Published

6 years ago

June 9, 2020

MUMBAI: Last week, the union ministry of health and family welfare reached out to filmmaker R Balki to produce a public service message for the novel SarsCov2 virus. The film featured Akshay Kumar, explaining that the virus is here to stay for a while and since we can’t stop working for a longer period it’s time to resume work and lives again, but wearing a mask is necessary as it prevents us and others from the disease. In the one minute and 30 second-long video, he consistently urges people to take all precautions before stepping out while ensuring safety.

In the last three months, the government announced several rounds of lockdown, and to make people aware about the disease, it relied on the digital medium and full-page ads on national dailies. It even launched a caller tune for Covid2019 awareness alert and used radio extensively. But there was no specific campaign released by the government officials at that time.

The film’s timing coincides with Unlock 1.0 with new guidelines to restart the economy in a phased manner.
The advertisement soon became the talk of the town on social media platforms. Many people praised the ad and applauded the message but a certain section of the society condemned the timing of the ad, owing to the drastically rising cases in the metropolitan cities.

In the ad, Kumar is seen in an avatar of a village man, stepping out of home after the lockdown to start work again, but stopped by an elderly neighbour advising not to go out and remain at home as it’s still risky. Kumar then explains the reasons why work cannot be stopped and shared the vision to wear a mask and take precautionary measures to deal with the pandemic. Towards the end of the film, the elderly man accompanies him to work.

TRA founder and CEO N Chandramouli says, “An actor and a director who have been assigned an advertisement brief by the government, may have control on the creative rendition of the ad, but will not have much say on the messaging. Akshay has done several government ads before this on promoting agricultural schemes, road safety programs, among others, so promoting a government-related cause is not new to him. Whether it is right to ask people to start working with precautions or not, is a divided opinion.”

He adds, “Akshay is also no stranger to controversy and criticism, right from the #BoycottNirma campaign after his depiction of a Maratha warrior in a Nirma ad, to his Canadian citizenship, so this one is just one more added to the list.”

Samsika Marketing Consultants founder, chairman and MD Jagdeep Kapoor opines, “Ads of this nature are of an educative quality. They are highly beneficial, though boring. This ad has been made with an attempt to make it interesting with the celebrity and style and light sense of humour. Public service ads are helpful because they are like a lighthouse in turbulent times. They are a guiding light and a glimmer of hope in difficult times and viewed seriously. Such ads usually work due to relevance and the social context.”

In the past, as well, the government has used public service messaging as a key tool to aware people and reassure them. Take the example of ‘Do Boond Zindagi ki’ campaign by Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign saw massive support from the audience and encouraged people’s participation in eradicating polio from India. There are many such campaigns released by the health ministry over the years, be it HIV AIDS, tuberculosis or dengue and other many diseases.
This showcases that public service ads serve a purpose in mitigating the myths surrounded or to propagate a clear message to the audience and when such campaigns have famous superstars, the message spreads quickly and people actually follow it.

However, this time things are different. The government has decided to start working again because the the economy has come crashing and it’s important to return to normalcy with effective measures.

Related Topics:Akshay Kumar covid2019 ministry of Health and Family welfare R Balki Unlock 1.0

Up Next

Covid2019 pushes PVR to take one-time write off of perishable inventory worth Rs 183 lakh

Don't Miss

Sleepwell announces first-of-its-kind initiative with ‘Sleepwell@Home’

Click to comment

Ad Campaigns

Amazon Ads maps 2026 as AI and streaming rewrite ad playbooks

Published

1 month ago

January 15, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

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.

Ad Campaigns

Publicis India appoints Sonal Verma as Arc Worldwide MD

Published

1 month ago

January 15, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Publicis Groupe India has appointed Sonal Verma as managing director of Arc Worldwide India, handing the reins of its experiential and shopper marketing business to a leader steeped in live brands and real world storytelling.

Arc Worldwide, the Groupe’s specialist arm focused on experiences that nudge consumers from curiosity to checkout, sits at the intersection of creativity, commerce and culture. Verma’s mandate is to sharpen that edge as brands grapple with shorter attention spans and more complicated buying journeys.

Verma joins from Cheil India, where she spent nearly five years building and leading the brand experience practice, most recently as senior vice president and head of brand experience. Her career reads like a tour of India’s experiential landscape, with leadership roles at Momentum Worldwide, Percept D Mark, Blockkbuster Events and Showtime Events.

She has also held senior activation roles at Radio City and The Times of India, giving her a rare mix of agency, media and on-ground execution experience. The common thread has been simple: turning big ideas into moments people remember and talk about.

At Arc Worldwide India, Verma will focus on expanding the agency’s experiential and shopper capabilities, strengthening client partnerships and keeping the work firmly rooted in consumer behaviour rather than buzzwords.

With Verma at the helm, Arc Worldwide is expected to double down on ideas that live beyond screens and closer to everyday life. For an industry obsessed with clicks and scrolls, this is a reminder that sometimes the strongest connections still happen face to face.

Ad Campaigns

Barbeque Nation taps ‘milne ki bhookh’ to kick off the new year

Published

2 months ago

December 29, 2025

indiantelevision.com Team

BENGALURU: Barbeque Nation is ringing in the new year with a reminder that some cravings cannot be ordered online. The casual dining chain has rolled out a new film campaign, milne ki bhookh, pitching its restaurants as places to meet, reconnect and linger over food.

Set against a world of constant messages and missed meet-ups, the campaign leans into a simple truth: dining out remains one of the few rituals that still brings people together. Barbeque Nation positions itself as the excuse and the setting for real conversations, shared plates and unhurried moments.

Nakul Gupta, cmo at Barbeque Nation, says the brand has long been about shared celebrations. As the year turns, milne ki bhookh captures what he calls a growing hunger to meet, connect and spend time together, with food at the centre of that experience.

Created by Makani Creatives, the campaign comprises three films built around Barbeque Nation’s signature grills and desserts. The storytelling is deliberately sensorial, designed to spark cravings while nudging diners to step out and meet in person.

Pavan Punjabi, chief integration officer at Makani Creatives, says the idea stems from a familiar contradiction. People are constantly connected, yet meetings with loved ones are endlessly postponed. Milne ki bhookh, he says, is a gentle push to make time for real-life catch-ups, using food as the reason to come together, share a meal and create memories.

The campaign breaks on December 25 with the grilled prawns film and will run for two months, amplified across digital platforms. As the new year begins, Barbeque Nation is betting that the strongest appetite of all is not for food alone, but for each other.