A Punjabi reel is going viral on Instagram. It’s a madcap story of romance, mafia, and betrayal, but somehow also of getting a visa to Canada.
The reel, a promotional video for I Can Overseas Visa, one of the thousands of visa agency services in Punjab, has garnered 2.3 million views on Instagram reels and over 3 lakh shares. They’ve done what bigger brands have tried but failed to achieve—fame on Instagram. And they did this by telling a story. It’s a convoluted plot, but somehow it caught everyone’s attention.
In this story, a girl ‘betrays’ her boyfriend and elopes with another man. She tells the lovelorn boyfriend that her father is a Maharashtra don and his life is done for good. The ad then cuts to the protagonist in front of the girl’s fuming gun-wielding don father who is ready to shoot the man on sight. But he has a change of heart when he realises that the protagonist is depressed.
After learning about his daughter’s ‘betrayal’ the don asks the protagonist what he plans to do next. To which he replies: “I am thinking of moving to Canada, but my visa has already been rejected once.” The don then endorses I Can Overseas Visa. All this in under a minute.
This is the kind of out-of-the box script that ads stuck in safe formulas are missing. Small Punjabi brands have managed to do what big brands with deep pockets and teams of copywriters and creative directors in Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru are struggling with— establish a connection with their audience. Or generate viral-worthy content. Lenskart with their Karan Johar campaign is one exception I can recall in recent times, but they are few and far between.
The I Can Overseas ad is absurd, but it gets the job done. The brand becomes the unforgettable hook and the video is widely shared. Perhaps, with our goldfish memory, we will soon forget about the angry don and the jilted lover seeking a fresh start in Canada. But it will create an impression on Punjabi aspirants looking for a visa agent.
The reel has been mocked in the comments section, but equally enjoyed for its cringe factor. It’s so bad, it’s good. It has given I Can Overseas Visa millions of organic impressions. That’s extremely impressive.
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Small brands, big ad appeal
It’s not just I Can Overseas Visa. Similar ads from Punjab-based companies are capturing the imagination of reel consumers, fuelling chatter and becoming embedded in the cultural zeitgeist.
Earlier this year, an ad for PlayWays Senior Secondary School in Patiala went viral. It featured students rapping about the lavish infrastructure their school offered: ‘Music classan, computer classan, sahulat saariyan (all amenities),’ goes the rap. It was shared widely on the internet, and even news articles were written about the amusing ad.
Can’t get over this school’s ad😭😭😭
A normal day in Punjab.Source: insta/playwaysschool pic.twitter.com/TLVhiAN92X
— Pulkit Kochar (@kocharpulkit) May 3, 2023
In another popular ad reel for a visa agency called Rightway, a man is confronted by his brother’s murderer. When the murderer asks him: “Are you shocked at the news of your brother’s death?” the man replies: “Not really. What I am really surprised about is that you managed to get a Canadian visa. Who got it done for you?”
It is easy to mock these creative byte-sized videos, and laugh at the eccentricity of Punjabis. But the reach of these ads, which far exceeds the size of the businesses they promote, holds important lessons for brands that would massively benefit from organic virality on such a large scale.
The golden years
The golden years of advertising were the early 2000s before OTT and streaming services offered ad-free content. Ad breaks were accepted by TV viewers without any resistance. And ads were made for entertainment. They weren’t just cues for quick bathroom visits in the middle of an Ekta Kapoor show, but seamlessly integrated into the viewing experience, with their taglines creeping into our lingo.
With the internet and social media, ads are now written off as intrusive. Unskippable ads on YouTube are agonising. Nobody wants to watch them or be interrupted by them while doom-scrolling on the internet.
The last memorable tagline was perhaps ‘Fogg chal raha hai’ for the deodorant brand Fogg, a campaign launched in 2015. The last massively successful campaign, and in particular ad, was Rahul Dravid losing his cool for the fintech brand Cred in 2021. The take-home line was “Indiranagar ka gunda hu mai“, which has nothing to do with the company, but was a huge hit. The brand recall value is generated in layers, and is not direct.
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The Punjabi formula
Brands are ubiquitous, but their presence is no longer endearing. The old traditional relationship has soured and needs immediate fixing. And some small Punjabi brands have the answer.
They turn to storytelling, which allows them to escape across as predatory or intrusive. And through these stories, they establish a genuine rapport with their customers.
Punjabi ads have cracked the Instagram code, likely while brainstorming in a drawing room with friends. They know what sells, and they’re doing it unabashedly. In an era where attention is fleeting, they’re becoming a hot topic in friend group chats.
It sets them apart from the competition, who have focused on enhancing brand recall by frequently repeating their names — often at the expense of the story that they’re telling.
While a six-second ad would force any brand to do this, formats like Instagram reels or YouTube shorts can turn the tide. Brands can reclaim what they were in the TV era, but only if they can crack the millennial and Gen Z code and get to work.
Collaborations with influencers and celebrities give dividends but come with a hefty tag. True gold is an eccentric video, with a tagline that becomes part of everyday conversation like Vimal Elaichi’s ‘zubaan kesari’. It’s what can save the advertising industry.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)