As 2025 winds down, India’s advertising industry continues to lean on long-form storytelling, AI-led ideas, memeverse humour, emotional narratives, and smart sequels to last year’s standout work. In its annual review, IMPACT has released the Top 75 Campaigns of 2025, recognising the campaigns that shaped industry conversations this year.
At Rank 49 is Center fresh, a chewing gum brand from Perfetti Van Melle India. The brand has rolled out a new campaign rooted in a simple human insight that India is overthinking. The idea stems from the Center fresh India Overthinking Report, created with YouGov, which found that 81% of people spend more than three hours a day overthinking.
The campaign’s new film, “Dimaag Pe Rakhe Lagam”, illustrates how quickly the mind can spiral into overthinking. In the film, the protagonist wakes up to find a message from his boss, then notices it has been deleted. His mind immediately jumps to the worst-case scenario: Have I been fired? What did I do? Was it the late report? The missed meeting?
As his thoughts escalate, the boss finally calls to explain that he had accidentally sent a message meant for his wife and deleted it. The panic was all in the protagonist’s head.
The film ends by showing how a simple Center fresh moment can interrupt this chain of overthinking, helping people reset and return to the present.
Created by Ogilvy and led by Anurag Agnihotri, Chief Creative Officer – West, the campaign aims to strike a balance between humour and relatability.
For this year’s list, the IMPACT editorial board evaluated hundreds of campaigns based on narrative clarity, creative execution, cultural relevance, originality, production value, and overall impact.
As the industry prepares for 2026, IMPACT continues to track the ideas and innovations that defined India’s advertising landscape in 2025.
