The gift box is the villain: What Diwali ad campaigns in 2026 say about regifting

The money is large. The Confederation of All India Traders expects festive trade to cross ₹7 lakh crore this season, up from about ₹6.05 lakh crore last year, and puts gift items at about 7% of it, according to Business Today.

The choices are narrow. In a LocalCircles survey of more than 31,000 urban households before Diwali 2024, about half said they gift sweets, bakery items or chocolates, and 48% said dry fruits. When most people buy from the same few categories, the same boxes keep coming back.

That repetition is what this year's campaigns are selling against. Each brand gave the old gift box a face, then offered itself as the way out.

In "Have a WOW Diwali," Saif opens towels, bedsheets, soap and crockery with polite thanks. One gift is a pair of glasses he had once given to the same person. Then a Zomato delivery partner arrives with a food hamper from a restaurant, and his mood changes. Customers can pick hampers of mithai, desserts and chocolates from restaurant partners on the app.

The setup is strong. Every viewer has received one of those gifts, and the glasses joke lands because it is specific. Zomato's marketing head, Sahibjeet Singh Sawhney, summed up the pitch: "Nothing beats a hamper from a mithai shop, bakery, or restaurant for Diwali."

The payoff is weaker. A review in Open magazine argued that the film never shows why the hamper is a better gift, beyond Saif's approval. Ashita Aggarwal of SP Jain put it in one line: "Saif is excellent at being Saif here." The film spends its jokes on the bad gifts and gives the hamper little to do.

In late October, notices from an "Indian Gifting Council" began circulating on meme and infotainment pages. They looked official and appeared to ban generic Diwali gifts. The council does not exist. Once people were talking, Bla Bli Blu revealed the notices as the start of its #SayNoToGifts campaign, reported Indian Television.

The brand film is set in a retirement home, where a box of dry fruits, a pack of soan papdi and a bar of chocolate look back on why nobody wants them anymore. It ends on the brand's fragrance gift sets and its build-your-own box. Indian Television reports that the company ships about 5,000 gift sets a day.

Two things make this work for a smaller brand. The fake notice cost little and travelled through pages people already follow. And the film keeps the joke on the gifts, so nobody who has ever handed over a box of soan papdi feels mocked.

Titan Watches' "Chosen Family," made with Kinnect and 22Feet Tribal under the Utsav by Titan banner, tells two stories: a friendship that becomes part of a family across cities, and a team of cooks who grow close in a busy restaurant kitchen. In both, a watch marks the bond. Indian Retailer notes that 55% of Titan watches are bought as gifts.

The kitchen team is the smart choice. Colleagues are often the people who receive the most generic Diwali gifts, and Titan gives them a story of their own. The brand does not need to criticise anyone else's gift to make the point that a watch is chosen with care.

Dylect, an appliance brand, made a similar argument in two films announced on 21 October: a stand mixer and a juicer shown in use after the festival is over. A gift that stays useful is another way of saying it will not be passed on.

The habit is old and well documented. In a 2014 survey for OLX by IMRB International, covering about 5,300 people in 16 cities, one in five urban recipients said they passed on unwanted gifts, and three in four said they stored them. Clothing, crockery and kitchen utensils topped the list of gifts people did not want.

Regifting works as an enemy for three reasons. Everyone recognises it, so the film needs no setup. Nobody defends it, so there is little risk of backlash. And it points straight at the product's job: to be the gift that gets kept.

There is one trap. A campaign that mocks the giver, an aunt or a boss, will annoy the people it needs to buy. All three brands kept the joke on the objects.

Our piece on fandom marketing and Zepto's Seoul Street makes a related point: the strongest campaigns start from something people already care about. If you want help finding that idea for your own brand, brand and content strategy is part of what we do.