Amazon starts selling ads inside ChatGPT
A US pilot puts ChatGPT's ad inventory inside Amazon's DSP as a managed service, with Delta Vacations among the first in. A new medium just got a sales house.
Amazon’s October Prime Day, officially Prime Big Deal Days, runs on Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 October 2026 in the UK. The sale opens at 12.01am on the 6th and closes at 11.59pm on the 7th, and it is for Prime members only. Amazon started running the TV and social adverts for it this week.
When is Prime Big Deal Days 2026?
The dates are 6 and 7 October, 48 hours in total, with deals across home, kitchen, electronics, toys, fashion and beauty, according to Amazon’s announcement. Members can set deal alerts on products in advance. Prime costs £8.99 a month or £95 a year, with a 30-day free trial, and students and 18 to 24 year olds pay half price after a six-month trial.
Jamil Ghani, vice-president of Amazon Prime, pitched it as an autumn event rather than an early Black Friday: “Autumn is when everything comes together, the hosting, the decorating, getting your home ready.” Amazon is also pointing shoppers to its Holiday Shop for early Christmas gifting.
The adverts
The UK campaign is a set of short cuts, from six to 20 seconds, all built around the same line: “Amazon Prime Big Deal Days are the 6th and the 7th of October.” The longest shows a young man finding a pair of headphones in a school locker room, others are vertical doorstep deliveries for social, and a graphic set lays the deals out on Prime’s blue boxes. It is date-driven advertising, and the only job is to make sure nobody misses the dates.
Why it matters for advertisers
Prime Big Deal Days is now the unofficial start of the golden quarter. It pulls spending forward before Black Friday, and every other retailer has to decide whether to match it, run a rival event or sit it out. It is also one of the biggest weeks of the year for Amazon’s own advertising business, as brands pay to be seen on the most visited shop in the country at the moment it is busiest.
That advertising business keeps expanding, from an extra charge on sellers’ ad spend to ads inside ChatGPT, and the rest of retail is copying it, as McDonald’s showed this week. The sale is where shoppers see Amazon. The ad slots around it are where Amazon makes its margin.
Max Rottier
He plans, buys and reviews advertising for a living, and helps score campaigns on the site against the same five Crown Score criteria alongside other authors and contributors.
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