Turning negativity into an asset: The bold new playbook of Indian brands

For over a decade, Indian advertising has thrived on a single truth: optimism sells. Smiling families, perfect mornings, and seamless deliveries have defined every brand promise. But in 2025, that sheen is starting to wear thin. Fatigued by glossy storytelling and overused positivity, audiences are responding more to something rawer, irritation, sarcasm, frustration, and even cynicism, as long as it feels real.

Brands are catching on. The latest wave of campaigns flips “positivity” into self-aware realism, turning life’s daily annoyances into punchlines. This tonal shift, from selling dreams to sharing frustrations, is what ad strategists now call the rise of negative creativity.

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The New Language of Frustration

The signs have been building since last year. CRED’s “Indiranagar ka Gunda” ad with Rahul Dravid proved that controlled chaos and shock could be hilarious and human. Tinder’s Halloween campaign, “The Scaries,” cast Urvashi Dholakia, Dilip Tahil and Rajat Bedi, icons of Indian TV villainy, to turn dating dread into satire. And quick-commerce players like Swiggy Instamart and Dunzo leaned into frustration-driven humour: “Kya kar rahe the?” and “Not Coming Soon” made light of consumer impatience instead of hiding it.

Even the much-talked-about “apology-letter” bandwagon, where brands like Škoda, Volkswagen, Adani Ambuja Cement, Myntra and Reliance Digital posted mock apologies “for being too good” - reflected the same cultural fatigue. The tone was self-deprecating, ironic, and rooted in a sense that sugar-coated sincerity no longer works.

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But the turning point for Indian advertising’s negative streak may have been when actor Arjun Kapoor fronted Call Me Chunky Ice Cream’s 2025 campaign. Known for being trolled for his stoic expressions, Kapoor leaned into that very meme, playing a man who doesn’t react to anything, until he tastes the ice cream. It was humour born of self-awareness, not perfection.

Not every attempt has landed well. When model Poonam Pandey staged her own fake death for cervical cancer awareness, the backlash was swift. What was meant as shock value for a cause came across as manipulative and insensitive, a cautionary tale of how “negativity” can easily veer into notoriety.

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Negativity With Empathy, Not Hate

For Ganesh Pareek, Executive Producer & Founder-Partner of First December Films, negativity works only when it leads somewhere emotionally constructive. “Negativity works only when it generates empathy,” he says. “If, at the end of the day, it generates empathy for that person, you understand that it happens. People don’t have a problem forgiving, they want to see authenticity.”

Pareek, whose production house has created several campaigns in this tone, sees social media culture as the catalyst. “The internet made everyone equally mockable, celebrities, influencers, brands. When you’re all in the same boat, self-deprecation becomes honesty,” he explains. “But if it becomes just for noise, people will get tired.”

He cites Call Me Chunky’s Arjun Kapoor film as an example of getting it right. “It took trolling and turned it into a moment of self-awareness. That’s embracing negativity with empathy - not hostility.”

According to him, the key is the empathy filter: negativity must resolve in understanding, humour, or ownership. “Nobody deserves random hate just for fun. If negativity leads to understanding, it works for everyone.”

The Balance Between Honesty and Optimism

For Vishal Prabhu, Creative Director - Strategy at White Rivers Media, authenticity and optimism aren’t opposites, they’re part of the same spectrum. “Honesty is powerful only when it leads somewhere constructive,” says Prabhu. “The balance lies in starting with what’s broken and ending with how the brand helps make it better. People don’t want perfection anymore; they want brands that see the chaos and simplify it.”

He adds that negativity isn’t the identity, it’s the entry point. “We use negativity as the hook, not the tone. It opens with a truth people already joke about, fake discounts, long waits, and ends with perspective or humour. If you start mocking your audience, you’ve lost them.”

For agencies, this often means convincing risk-averse clients that a “negative-first” script won’t harm brand tone. Prabhu says data helps: “Campaigns that start with relatable frustration usually outperform feel-good ads in recall, engagement, and shareability. When you prove that frustration plus wit creates empathy, not backlash, brands see the difference.”

2025 had many defining ad tropes like the public apology letters, the memes becoming RoI ads. Brands like Škoda, Volkswagen, and Adani Ambuja Cement issued tongue-in-cheek statements “apologising” to consumers for being “too good,” sparking dozens of imitators. But as the trend snowballed, marketers began questioning its value.

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“The first few were witty; the rest became formulaic,” says a senior planner at a Mumbai agency. 

This fatigue mirrors what happened to “quirky advertising” a few years ago, once a breath of fresh air, later a creative cliché. The lesson: wit alone doesn’t sustain recall; emotional honesty does.

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Why Negativity Suddenly Works

Another industry expert says the trend is less mysterious than it seems - it’s survival in a hyper-saturated media world. “In a very media-cluttered and fragmented environment, brands are trying to differentiate,” says the expert. “Taking on a little bit of negativity, a bit of shock, surprise, sarcasm, has become the flavour of the season. It’s driven by the need to stand out.”

He points out that this “shock-as-differentiator” approach isn’t entirely new. Decades ago, Onida’s devil mascot did the same, a wicked twist that stayed memorable because it was distinctive yet on-brand. Today, that instinct is being reinterpreted for the digital age, where attention spans are short, and irony travels faster than sincerity.

But he also warns against overuse,“All these things have a phase. Brands will use them till they really add value to the brand proposition. Once that’s done, the trend will die down.”

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Finding Sustainability In Sarcasm

Can negative humour become a long-term creative language? The experts think it can, if it keeps evolving, “People are forgiving when they see authenticity,” says Pareek. “They relate to truth more than perfection. So yes, if we keep it real, this form will stay. It should end with understanding, not anger.”

The industry expert, meanwhile, believes every creative wave is cyclical. “Some brands may always take a slightly more wicked approach depending on their character,” he says. “But trends fade when they’re used without purpose.”

And Prabhu puts it most simply, “The language of frustration works best when it leads to perspective, not pessimism. It’s not anti-positivity - it’s pro-honesty.”

Negativity in advertising isn’t a rebellion against optimism, it’s a redefinition of it. In a culture where people roll their eyes at perfect promises, the most refreshing thing a brand can do is admit imperfection. Whether through a sarcastic villain, a self-aware apology, or a meme-turned-message, “negative creativity” is forcing Indian advertising to look itself in the mirror, and laugh a little.

As Pareek sums up, “When negativity reveals truth, not just shock, it stays with people. That’s what makes it work.”