Situation: Vicks has been in India for over 50 years. For three generations, the brand has been respected and trusted by Indians. It has a deep emotional connection with consumers from their own childhood. The downside of this was that the brand has begun to feel old-fashioned and was no longer the cultural icon it once was. Our communications, while successful, has not challenged this belief - they reinforced a reassuring but somewhat nostalgic picture of family life.

Brief: Reassert category leadership by emotionally connecting with modern India.

Objective for communication: Reconnect the brand’s core idea with the real lives of today’s consumers.

The film retells the true story of Gauri Sawant (acting as herself), an Indian transgender woman who was ousted from her family when she was still a teenager because of who she was. Gauri adopted Gayatri, the daughter of a sex-worker who died when the girl was only 6.

The film takes place during a bus trip between Mumbai - where Gayatri and Gauri live - and the hill station of Lonavala - where Gayatri goes to boarding school. During the trip, elements outside the window remind her of her mother’s and her past life and far they’ve gone together.

She tells us how the two of them found in each other the family and the care they were denied by life and the rest of society, and how family isn’t a matter of blood ties or a shared name. Only a matter of care.

We made a film about a classic Mother - Daughter story of care through hardships, one that an Indian audience could easily identify with, before revealing that the story was one of an orphan adopted by a transgender woman, part of the Hijra community that Indian society casually oppresses.

The story’s power resides in the fact that it is a very common story (proving that everyone can be family) but that the mere identity of the protagonists makes it “shocking” (proving that the mainstream public couldn’t imagine that it is the case).

This realisation is what got the film to be shared so much and so naturally.