MAM
Brands celebrate Durga Puja as the festival of resilience
NEW DELHI: Durga Puja is a time when people come together in joy and celebration. The streets are chock-a-block with revellers, the night glows with colourful light displays, and the very air thrums with excitement and gaiety. Brands look forward to this time of the year and come up with beautiful creatives that celebrate the festive spirit to resonate with their target audience.
While this year is different, brands haven't shied away from reaching out and connecting with consumers in a number of different ways. Their pujo ad campaigns this time around are designed around the resilience of the human spirit, overcoming difficult times through a positive outlook, and celebration with responsibility.
Here is a compilation of a few of them: –
Tanishq
The jewellery brand’s festive campaign Ekotai Shundor, Ekotai Shokti is an ode to the resilient spirit of Bengal and Bengalis. The ad film encourages people to come together and celebrate pujo while adhering to safety norms. It resonates with the message that we can overcome any obstacles in our way with the spirit of oneness and unity.
The campaign features popular Bengali actor and Tanishq’s brand ambassador for the east region Mimi Chakraborty. It highlights the rituals and traditions associated with this auspicious festival and the mythos of Maa Durga.
Shoppers Stop
Titled Ami Alo or ‘I Am The Light’, the film by apparel & lifestyle brand Shoppers Stop showcases how women, even in the most difficult and darkest of times, embody the characteristics of Goddess Durga. She is one-of-a-kind (Advitiya), powerful (Shakti), fearless (Nirbhay), and light (Ami Alo).
Depicting the festive season as a celebration of families coming together during such difficult times, the campaign urges customers to step out of the darkness, stand together and bring the brilliance back into their lives. Above all, the film recognises women as the beacon of hope and positivity for their family.
Asian Paints
Asian Paints has a long association with Durga Puja. As part of their Sharad Shamman campaign this year, the brand has launched a new film Dugga Elo Ghawrey – Maa Durga is coming home.
Dugga Elo Ghawrey is a story of little Mini’s pujo surprise. The film opens with a despondent little girl ruing the fact that she won’t get to enjoy the customary pandal hopping and other pujo delights. Then, her family takes it upon themselves to transform their home into a vibrant pujo pandal, complete with carnival games, snacks and sparkling laughter. As for the homecoming of the Goddess, the little girl discovers Durga Maa on her living room wall. Her mother paints the Goddess with Asian Paints wall colours, thereby bringing a new kind of celebration to light.
The melodious background score in the film has been created by renowned band Lakkhichhara.
ZEE5
ZEE5 has launched a digital campaign #MaayerSatheMaakeDekha to encourage viewers to celebrate pujo by paying a tribute to their mother alongside Maa Durga. The platform has roped in five renowned celebrities of the Bengali entertainment industry to feature in five heart-warming videos, where each of them reminisce about their childhood memories around pujo, realizing in the bargain how mothers would often get relegated to the side-lines for the overall fanfare. The campaign makes an impassioned appeal to everybody to appreciate and recognise our mothers more, and most importantly, give them our love and time. The videos also see each of the known faces highlight all the special things they will do for their mother to make this pujo memorable for them, encouraging the audience to do the same.
Welspun
Domestic brand Welspun has launched a multi-pronged campaign #ChaloPaltai this Durga Puja. Through this initiative, Welspun has tried to convey the positives of inverting established gender roles. Inspired by Welspun’s reversible bed sheets, the campaign showcases the powerful stories of women who defy gender norms and societal limitations to take on vocations that are considered a man’s domain, such as purohits (priests), dhakis (percussionist), and sculptors.
Joy Personal Care
Beauty brand Joy, which enjoys a strong market presence in West Bengal, has attempted to capture the vibe of Durga Puja in their latest campaign Dugga Elo. The music video features 10 popular Bengali celebrities preparing for the festival in their own way and indulging in the celebrations whole-heartedly. Akriti Kakkar has lent her voice for the upbeat song and it strikes an emotional chord with audiences by evoking the vibrant and cheerful spirit of pujo.
MAM
VML India lands two finalist spots at Cairns Hatchlings 2026
The Mumbai agency is back in Australia with two teams, a UN brief and 24 hours to impress
MUMBAI: VML India is heading to Australia again. The Mumbai-based creative agency has secured two finalist spots at the Cairns Hatchlings 2026 competition, one in the Audio category and one in Design, making it the only Indian agency to have reached the finals in both editions of the contest since its launch in 2025.
Four people will make the trip. Senior copywriter Shilpi Dey and senior art director Raj Thakkar will compete in Audio. Art directors Shabbir and Shruti Negi will go head-to-head with the world’s best in Design. The finals take place at the Cairns Convention Centre from 13th May, culminating in an awards ceremony on 15th May.
The work that got them there is worth examining. For the Audio category, Dey and Thakkar tackled a brief for LIVE LIKE MMAD with a campaign called Inner Voice, Interrupted. Using spatial audio techniques, the campaign recreates the overwhelming self-doubt that descends after a long workday, physically panning negative thoughts left and right before cutting the noise entirely to reveal a confident inner voice. Strategically targeted at commuters via Spotify during evening rush hours, the campaign reframes the hours after work as an opportunity for personal growth and charitable action.
For the Design category, Shabbir and Negi worked on a brief for Canteen’s Bandanna Day, a campaign highlighting how cancer pushes teenagers out of their own defining moments. Using a pixelated design language to create stark contrast between a blurred world of isolation and a focused world of connection, the campaign, titled The Flipside of Cancer, shows teenagers fading into the background of birthdays, skateparks and school proms. As a Canteen bandanna appears, the blur flips and the teenager snaps back into sharp focus.
Kalpesh Patankar, group chief creative officer of VML India, made no attempt to disguise his satisfaction. “We are immensely proud to see our teams consistently excel on the Cairns Hatchlings platform since its inception,” he said. “They have masterfully tackled challenging briefs across diverse categories, demonstrating both layered storytelling and a unique creative approach. This exceptional teamwork is truly inspiring.”
Dey and Thakkar, returning to the finals after last year’s run, were candid about the demands of the audio medium. “It’s one of the most demanding mediums, where we only have a few seconds to capture a listener’s world with sound alone, so absolute clarity is essential,” they said. “The true measure of creative work is its ability to create positive change, and our audio submission was made to help those who need it most while encouraging people to silence the inner voices that hold them back.”
Shabbir and Negi, competing in Design for the first time, described the experience as “a completely different beast.” “We see it as an opportunity to showcase our expertise, raise the bar, and challenge ourselves in new ways, while also learning from creative minds from across the globe,” they said.
In Australia, the four finalists will face a live 24-hour brief from the United Nations before presenting in a live pitch session. Twenty-four hours, one brief, one shot. VML India has been here before. It knows exactly what is at stake.
