Brand follows my brother: How Ravi Kishan’s viral moment became a brand magnet

Ravi Kishan in a recent podcast said “money follows my brother”, and in the weeks that followed, brands appeared to take the line quite literally. What started with a viral clip on social media has now travelled from memes and reels into music, beauty, artificial intelligence and dining. T-Series turned the catchphrase into a song, RENÉE Cosmetics put Kishan at the centre of a beauty conversation, boAt built a workplace campaign around his viral “gyaan” persona, and Swiggy Dineout went a step further by rechristening its annual Great Indian Restaurant Festival as the Great Indian Ravi Festival.

The speed at which the meme has moved across categories is notable. Kishan’s expressions, delivery and lines from his viral appearances have become creative material, with each brand adapting the phenomenon to its own proposition. T-Series released Money Follows My Brother on September 11, while Swiggy Dineout’s latest GIRF runs from September 14 to October 24 under the line “Discount Followsss My Brothaaaar”. boAt has used “Intelligence Follows My Brother” for its Crest AI campaign, while RENÉE Cosmetics has brought Kishan into its Beauty Talks content series.

From podcast punchline to brand property

The trigger was Kishan’s appearance on Raj Shamani’s podcast, where he was asked about recognition and money. His response, “Pehchaan. Money follows my brother, money follows!”, became a widely circulated meme and subsequently spawned multiple variations online. T-Series then converted the phrase into an official track titled Money Follows My Brother, featuring Kishan alongside Mellow D and Surjit Bindrakhia.

Link: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdKT_VUAhGX/?stkn=MTZrdDl3ZGJkYXJxdg==

The music release was an early indication that the moment had moved beyond a social-media joke. Instead of simply being referenced in memes, Kishan’s language itself became an asset that could be adapted into branded and commercial formats.

Swiggy Dineout has perhaps made the most direct use of that idea "Jhoot the truth". The brand has transformed its Great Indian Restaurant Festival into the Great Indian Ravi Festival, placing Kishan at the centre of the property rather than using him only as a conventional celebrity face.

Link: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdRJRxtgyeD/?stkn=MXRnbHI4b3AybnVmOA==

Dhruvish Thakkar, AVP Marketing and Revenue, Swiggy Dineout said, “We have partnered with trending personalities and internet icons for GIRF over the last few years. This time, we have gone a step further by rechristening GIRF as Great Indian Ravi Festival. Ravi Kishan isn't just having a moment right now — he is the moment and has been trending across social media for the past few weeks! This is the reason why instead of simply riding that wave, we decided to build this year's entire festival around him. We hope that GIRF in its new avatar will appeal to a larger audience, as the discount really does follow the brothaa."

The campaign runs across 57,000-plus restaurants in 84-plus cities, offering discounts of up to 50%. The brand has also built the campaign around Kishan’s other internet references, making his meme persona part of the larger dining proposition rather than simply placing him in an advertisement.

When ‘gyaan’ becomes an AI proposition

boAt has taken a different route. Its Crest AI campaign, developed with Google Cloud and powered by Gemini, uses Kishan to play multiple workplace characters who overwhelm an employee with unsolicited advice, corporate jargon and lifestyle suggestions.

Link: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdN0np5Nutw/?stkn=MWx5YWN2cTNpaWJmdQ==

The film is titled “Intelligence Follows My Brother”, turning the familiar construction into a product message around AI and information overload. The campaign takes the meme format out of the social-media feed and places it in an office setting.

The creative premise draws on a familiar feature of Kishan’s viral content: the actor dispensing unsolicited philosophies and advice. Here, that same behaviour becomes the problem that the AI product is positioned to solve.

Ravi Kishan enters beauty territory

RENÉE Cosmetics has taken the meme persona into a completely different category with Beauty Talks, a content-led podcast featuring Kishan and Priyank Shah, Co-Founder, RENÉE Cosmetics.

The conversation centres on beauty, confidence and glow, with RENÉE’s Lumi Glow integrated into the discussion. Kishan’s humour and conversational style move the product conversation away from a conventional beauty-ad format.

Link: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdB_DhSNki5/?stkn=MWJtN3kyZnpzc2kybA==

Priyank Shah, Co-Founder, RENÉE Cosmetics said, “Beauty Talks is an extension of that thinking. We are constantly looking at formats and cultural trends that are shaping consumer attention today and finding authentic ways to participate in them. With Ravi Kishan, the conversation became even more fun, spontaneous and relatable, while allowing us to talk about Lumi Glow and the larger idea of confidence in a refreshing way.”

The format differs from the campaigns by T-Series, boAt and Swiggy Dineout, but the underlying strategy is similar. Rather than recreating the original podcast clip, RENÉE uses Kishan’s current internet persona as the entry point for a conversation about its category.

One meme, multiple brand propositions

What makes the current Ravi Kishan moment particularly relevant for marketers is the flexibility of the creative asset. The same phrases and mannerisms can be adapted to entirely different brand messages without making every campaign feel identical.

For T-Series, the phrase became entertainment content. For boAt, “gyaan” illustrated information overload before introducing an AI solution. RENÉE used Kishan’s conversational humour to enter a beauty discussion, while Swiggy Dineout made him the identity of an entire consumer property.

The pattern also shows how quickly brands can respond when a cultural moment has enough recognition for consumers to understand the reference without much explanation. In Kishan’s case, the original meme provides the shorthand, while each brand adds a category-specific punchline.

Alongside “Money follows my brother”, the wider Kishan meme universe has included lines such as “Jaldi the late” and “Pure desh ko pagla dunga”. Meanwhile, “Intelligence follows my brother” has entered the brand lexicon through boAt’s campaign.

For marketers, the Kishan phenomenon sits somewhere between celebrity endorsement and meme culture. Brands are not merely borrowing his face. They are borrowing an internet language that consumers already recognise and rebuilding it around their own propositions.

The original catchphrase has become a template: money follows, intelligence follows, discounts follow. And, for now, brands are following Ravi Kishan.