This Diwali, brands bet on humour to connect with Gen Z

For years, Diwali ads followed a script that rarely changed, lamps flickering to soft music, tearful reunions at the doorstep, and a closing message about the festival being a celebration of ‘coming home’. The formula worked for generations raised on nostalgia. But for the generation raised on irony and authenticity, that emotional playbook is beginning to feel a little too predictable.

Scroll through your feed this season, and you will see what’s changed. Diwali ads today sparkle with satire, self-awareness, and meme logic. Building on last year’s campaign, Zepto has taken its festive humour to another level this year with Mithai Wars 2025. 

Framing India’s ‘favourite’ sweets, Soan Papdi, Kaju Katli, Chana Barfi, and Peda, as contestants in a playful ‘election’, the campaign taps into Gen Z’s love for memes and interactive online culture. It works because it transforms a traditional cultural object, mithai, into a social conversation, inviting audiences to participate, debate, and share their opinions, all while preserving the festive context.

“Festive seasons have always been all about the emotional narrative, but the game has changed,” said Romit Nair, National Creative Director, Dentsu Creative Webchutney - North. “On social media, traditional emotional appeals don’t quite cut it with younger audiences anymore. To win them over, brands are turning to memes, moment marketing, and relatable content that hits close to home.”

Gen Z experiences Diwali as both a cultural anchor and a stage for self-expression. “They value rituals and family time, but they also read the festival through lenses of sustainability, inclusivity, and socialising,” says Chirag Raheja, Co-founder of Human Global. “It’s not just Diwali — it’s their Diwali.”

Brands that resonate with this mindset use humour, relatability, and interactivity to meet Gen Z where they live. Swiggy Instamart’s ‘Sona Kitna Sona Hai’ Dhanteras ad from last year, for instance, exaggerated the gold-buying ritual with absurd, playful visuals, turning a traditional practice into a funny, shareable moment. Here, satire became a way to make a familiar cultural behaviour feel new and entertaining.

Storytelling themes & striking a balance

Meme culture and internet-native humour have changed the playbook for Diwali advertising. According to Chirag Raheja, three storytelling patterns dominate this year: refreshing familiar festive motifs, leaning into self-aware, meme-first humour, and embedding social-impact narratives such as sustainability or support for small businesses.

Crocs India this year flipped the traditional family narrative, using the classic song ‘Yaar bina chain kahan’ to show that friends can be family during Diwali too, striking a chord with Gen Z by celebrating chosen bonds over conventional gatherings.

Other brands are experimenting in similar ways. Xiaomi’s Diwali films highlight the chaos and celebration that follow major festive offers, showing the excitement, confusion, and humour that naturally emerge when deals hit the market. 

Meanwhile, Nothing’s Diwali ad begins like a traditional festive commercial, with sentimental gifting moments, before flipping the script with sarcastic commentary and meta humour. 

Gen Z, raised on irony and memes, responds to content that feels clever, self-aware, and participatory. And brands are doing exactly that with their Diwali ads this season. 

The challenge for brands is balancing humour with emotional resonance. Raheja explains: “The simplest way is to keep the emotion sacred and the tone flexible. Use family values as the emotional backbone — belonging, warmth, togetherness — and let humour live in the execution, not at the expense of the emotional beat. Always validate the concept with cultural advisors or small Gen Z test audiences before wide release.”

Divyanshu Bhadoria, Chief Strategy Officer at Toaster INSEA, says, “Core family values and Gen Z-coded content aren’t mutually exclusive. You can show parent-child love as a story of struggle for the perfect Diwali gift, or Gen Z-code it — like a parent trying the latest dance trend with their kid.”

Similarly, Romit Nair adds, “To really connect with Gen Z, it’s about tapping into their world. Highlighting ‘chosen families’ might resonate more than traditional setups. And instead of fireworks, an eco-friendly Diwali approach could really strike a chord. It’s all about aligning with their values.”

The balancing act

While humour, memes, and quirkiness are helping brands connect with Gen Z, executing these campaigns isn’t without its pitfalls. Making Diwali ads feel both culturally authentic and relevant to younger audiences is a delicate balance.

One common challenge is over-simplification or tokenism. Diwali is layered with rituals, regional variations, and symbolism, and reducing these to clichés can feel tone-deaf. As Romit Nair points out, “Using cultural symbols without really understanding their significance is a recipe for disaster.” For Gen Z, authenticity isn’t optional; campaigns that feel performative are quickly called out.

Another hurdle is performative purpose. Many campaigns attempt to showcase sustainability or social impact, but making claims without clear action — for example, an “eco Diwali” without measurable steps — invites scepticism. Chirag Raheja advises brands to back up their purpose with evidence: partnerships, numbers, or tangible outcomes. Without this, the message risks being dismissed as marketing fluff.

Finally, clutter and noise make the festive period one of the toughest times to stand out. Diwali campaigns are everywhere, and while bold humour and memes can cut through, they can also fall flat if poorly executed. Creative risks need careful calibration: too safe, and the ad is forgettable; too extreme, and it alienates the audience.

Experts suggest practical ways to navigate this tightrope. Raheja recommends forming a cultural-steering group with Gen Z creators to ensure campaigns resonate with real experiences and testing ideas in smaller markets before a full launch. Nair adds that community engagement and nuanced cultural understanding are key: brands that celebrate rituals, stories, and values that truly matter will earn both trust and attention.

What Diwali ads are showing this year is that tradition and humour can coexist. For Gen Z, the festival is both a cultural anchor and a stage for self-expression, and the campaigns that resonate are the ones that meet them there

Experts say the real win for brands isn’t in outdoing everyone with spectacle, but in creating moments that feel authentic, relatable, and a little playful for Gen Z. In a season full of lights, noise, and ads, it’s the campaigns that mix humour with heart that actually stick.

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