Britannia Good Day invites Parle Monaco to co-create a Pride pack via TOI ad

The front page of today’s Times of India was adorned with the colours of pride — and an unexpected invitation. Britannia Good Day has invited its rival Parle Monaco to collaborate on a multi-biscuit bundle dubbed the "Pride" pack. 

In the ad, which celebrates ‘Flavours of Equality’ for International Pride Month, all but one slot in the rainbow-coloured pack featured Britannia’s Good Day biscuits. The empty space, however, carried a message: “Dear Parle Monaco, if we can share a shelf, we can share a cause.”

In this delicious depiction of love, identity, and belonging, Britannia has announced that “pride is about sharing space” and does not want its pride pack to be limited to its own colours. 

The colourful campaign is a collaboration between Britannia and Enormous, a full-service advertising agency based in India, in association with The Humsafar Trust. It features Britannia Good Day Fruit & Nut Cookies, Cashew Cookies, Pista-Badam Cookies, Butter Cookies and Choco-Chip Cookies, with the third slot remaining vacant for Parle Monaco.

According to Britannia, if Parle answers in the affirmative, “the message can be louder and the pack, prouder”.

Britannia was founded by a group of British businessmen in Kolkata 133 years ago. 36 years its junior, Parle was founded in 1929 by the Chauhan family in Mumbai’s Vile Parle (giving the brand its name). 

The Indian biscuit market was valued at $5.05 billion in 2024, and it is expected to reach $8.72 billion by 2030, rising at a CAGR of 9.61%, as per Research and Markets.

Britannia and Parle are close competitors in the Indian biscuit market, with the former commanding a 31% share of the market and the latter following with a 29% share, according to Statista.

Market rivals extending a hand across the fence is not unprecedented, especially when it is for a cause. In 2015, in a similar print ad in the New York Times, Burger King proposed co-creating a ‘McWhopper’ with McDonald’s, a hybrid of a Big Mac and the Whopper.

They were to sell it in Atlanta only for a day, donating their proceeds to commemorate World Peace Day. 

McDonald’s, however, declined via a Facebook post, suggesting a phone call would have been more efficient as a proposal.

It may not have worked out for the two American burger behemoths, but it remains to be seen whether India’s leading biscuit giants will become allies during Pride Month.