Campaign for Havell’s puts a twist on a pious tradition
Water. H20. The wet stuff. Sure, we can’t live without it, but it can at times be pretty undrinkable. Tepid, cloudy, riddled with bacteria, deadly. Or just… kind of funny tasting.
In India, the issue of access to clean water is a huge one; 5% of the country don’t have access to safe drinking water, which translates to around 75.8 million people according to Water Aid. On the flip side, the water purifier market in the country is massive. In 2015 it was valued as a $1.1bn industry, and by the tail end of 2024 it’s expected to reach a whopping $4.1bn. Remind us to invest.
Not all water purifiers, however, are created equal. At least according to this surprising campaign from BBH India.
This new BBH campaign for water purifier brand Havell’s is called #PaniSePangaMatLo (or: don't mess with water). It’s based on the insight that regular water purifiers available in India produce drinking water that could be acidic in nature and cause other related health problems, while Howell’s new range of RO water purifiers maintained water pH levels.
In order to resonate with the target market, who could potentially be pretty apathetic, the campaign zeroes in on a clever cultural hook, that the act of giving someone water is actually a very pious act – and turns that on its head.