A single minute has become the biggest story of India’s advertising awards season.
Johnson’s Baby’s “Project Golden Minute” — conceptualised by DDB Mudra — has emerged as the most shortlisted campaign at the Creative Abby 2026, securing a staggering 32 shortlist mentions across 22 categories ahead of Goafest 2026. The campaign now stands as the most shortlisted individual campaign in this year’s awards cycle.
Released by The Advertising Club, the shortlist features 845 shortlisted entries spanning film, digital, PR, social, direct, branded content, design, audio, health communication, and integrated storytelling.
But among the hundreds of shortlisted campaigns, “Project Golden Minute” has emerged as the defining creative work of the year.
A public health initiative disguised as a campaign
At the centre of “Project Golden Minute” lies a medically critical insight: the first 60 seconds after birth can determine whether a newborn survives. Immediate neonatal resuscitation, skin-to-skin contact, and early intervention can dramatically reduce infant mortality.
Johnson’s Baby transformed this medical reality into a nationwide awareness initiative through a deeply integrated campaign executed across television, digital video, audio, social media, PR, influencer outreach, cinema advertising, health communication, and brand experience formats.
The campaign film, developed by DDB Mudra, used a recreated traditional Sohar lullaby titled Pahila Saans, voiced by folk singer Malini Awasthi, to emotionally frame the importance of a newborn’s first breath.
More significantly, the initiative is rooted in real healthcare intervention. Johnson’s Baby says the neonatal resuscitation programme it supports has trained over two lakh healthcare workers over the last 16 years.
The campaign’s shortlist sweep
“Project Golden Minute” has secured shortlist mentions across nearly every major discipline at Creative Abby 2026, spanning Audio-Visual/TV, Digital and OTT Video, Audio and Radio, Integrated Campaign, Health Abby, Public Relations, Branded Content, Brand Experience, Social and Influencer, Direct, Video Craft, and SDG Abby categories. Its wide-ranging presence across both craft-led and impact-driven verticals underlines the campaign’s rare ability to perform equally strongly as a piece of storytelling, a strategic platform, and a socially relevant initiative.Its presence across Video Craft categories — including direction, editing, cinematography, music, and sound design — indicates that the campaign’s recognition extends beyond social impact into pure creative execution.
The agencies shaping Creative Abby 2026
While “Project Golden Minute” leads the field, this year’s shortlist also highlights the growing dominance of agency networks building large-scale, multi-platform storytelling ecosystems.
Among the top campaigns:
- Johnson’s Baby’s “Project Golden Minute” was created by DDB Mudra
- P&G Whisper’s “Project Early Periods,” one of the year’s most awarded social impact campaigns with 16 shortlist mentions, was led by Leo India
- Lay’s “Project Mitti,” another heavily shortlisted initiative, also came from Leo India
- Jio Studios B62 Studios’ “Dhurandhar” emerged as one of the strongest entertainment-led entries of the year with 15 shortlists
Meanwhile, campaigns such as Britannia’s “The Pride Pact,” The Photographic Society of India’s “If Only,” Lenovo India’s “Gamers on Duty,” and Mountain Dew’s “Darescore” have reinforced how Indian agencies are increasingly blending cultural insight, platform-native storytelling, and social relevance into large integrated ideas.
Beyond purpose-washing
Advertising juries have rewarded purpose-led work for years, but “Project Golden Minute” appears to have connected because it goes beyond symbolic activism.
The campaign does not merely attach a social issue to a product narrative. Instead, it positions the brand itself as an enabler of measurable intervention — using creative storytelling to amplify awareness around a real healthcare initiative already operating on the ground.
That distinction matters.
In a shortlist crowded with retail promotions, gaming campaigns, entertainment properties, and platform activations, a newborn-care initiative has emerged as the most celebrated campaign of the year — not simply because of its emotional message, but because of the depth of craft supporting it.
The road to Goafest
Shortlists, of course, do not automatically translate into metals. Each category at Creative Abby is judged independently, and the final winners will only be announced during Goafest 2026 in Goa.
Still, the scale of “Project Golden Minute’s” presence across craft, health, PR, integrated, direct, social, and SDG categories makes it the campaign to watch this awards season.
More importantly, its rise signals a broader shift in Indian advertising — where the industry’s highest honours are increasingly recognising not just one standout film or viral idea, but campaigns capable of combining cultural relevance, executional excellence, and measurable societal impact.
For Johnson’s Baby and DDB Mudra, one minute may have become the defining creative benchmark of the year.
