Meta India helps arrange a godforsaken college’s festival

First, there was ‘Holi in Romania’. Then came ‘Pooja Didi’. Today, we have a bunch of ‘nithallas’ from TSLP college. These ads from Meta India portray how the social media giant can galvanise its users to bring about a change.

Unlike the first two spots from Meta India (then Facebook), the new ad by DDB Mudra uses every Meta app – Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – to help the students of a godforsaken college to arrange a festival.

From creating awareness about the fest and, more importantly, the college, to getting sponsors to performers, the Meta apps play a central role.

The ad’s directed by Shoojit Sircar and produced by Rain Pictures.

“We wanted to tell a sweeping story of all the wonderful things that Meta's family of apps – Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – can enable in India,” says Neeraj Kanitkar, executive creative director, DDB Mudra.

He tells afaqs! that as they started thinking, a story about a bunch of underdogs going about trying to organise a college fest seemed like a great starting point.

“Organising a fest, kind of, requires everything, like ‘jugaad’, luck, etc. We’re almost sure that almost no college fest in India is organised without Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.”

Kanitkar reveals that Meta loved it and “backed us” to execute it.

“Sircar and his team then stepped in with their magic and brought to life the loveable bunch of ‘nithallas’ – their struggles, innocence, spirit and story.”