Print ads have a familiar formula: show the product, add a celebrity, make the message clear and hope the reader pauses.
Lay’s decided to make that pause a little more personal.
With Lay’s Kholo, Ranbir Se Milo, the brand has turned a newspaper ad into a small interactive experience by putting a mirror right where an empty chair should be.
And suddenly, the reader isn’t just looking at Ranbir Kapoor. They’re sitting next to him.
The execution in The Times of India sets up a simple scene. Ranbir is sitting with his Lay’s, while an empty chair sits beside him.
But instead of filling that chair with another celebrity or campaign visual, Lay’s leaves it open and places a mirror there. Look into it, and you become Ranbir’s snack-time companion. It’s a clever use of the physicality of print. The newspaper isn’t just carrying the advertisement; it becomes part of the experience.
That is what makes the idea work. Readers naturally look at a mirror. So instead of asking them to imagine themselves in the campaign, Lay’s literally puts them into the frame.
The insight here is simple: people are more likely to engage when the creative gives them a role to play.
A regular celebrity ad asks you to watch the story. This one puts you inside it.
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It also fits neatly with the larger Kholo, Ranbir Se Milo campaign, where opening a Lay’s pack becomes the starting point for a chance to meet Ranbir.
The newspaper execution takes that same idea of opening, discovering and participating and gives it a visual twist.
And that’s perhaps the bigger takeaway from the ad: print doesn’t have to compete with digital by behaving like digital. Its advantage is that you can touch it, fold it, peel it, scratch it — or, in this case, see yourself in it.
Lay’s simply found a fun way to use that advantage. Because when an ad can make you ask, ‘Wait… am I in the newspaper?’, you’re probably going to remember it a little longer.
