When Dan Brown’s ‘Angels & Demons’ inspired The Hindu’s R-Day ad

It’s not every day you turn the newspaper upside down just to make sure you’re reading the same thing. That day was 2025’s Republic Day when an ad from The Hindu used an ambigram to remind people a democracy is only as strong as the freedom its press enjoys.

“We went through a lot of iterations and thought about how we can reflect journalism and democracy. The former is a republic’s mirror, after all. It is the mirror that holds power accountable,” explains Sanket Audhi, creative and founding member, Talented, a Bangalore-based creative agency that conceptualised the ad. 

From there, the agency experimented with formats to bring the thought to life; it considered using a reverse jacket or mirroring The Hindu’s logo. 

What served as the answer to this challenge turned out to be a book that delved into the precarious relationship religion shares with science—Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons. In the book and the movie, there’s a scene where Dr Langdon shows how the word Illuminati reads the same forward and backwards. 

In this case, the ambigram from one side reads ‘Democracy’; turn the page upside down and it reads ‘Journalism’.

Subhagya Gupta, an intern at Talented from NIFT, presented the idea of using an ambigram, and the rest of the team working on The Hindu’s Republic Day ad decided it was the best way to go about it. 

“The brief was to outline the role and relevance of a newspaper in the digital era, especially in a time of fake news and targeted news,” reveals Karishma Changroth, brand strategy and founding member, Talented. 

When asked if they looked at references from other publications, national or international, before zeroing down on the idea, the answer was a confident no. “Over the last month working with The Hindu, I think we've got such a stronghold of the brand voice now that I don't look outside as much as look within The Hindu and its legacy,” says Changroth. 

Also Read: We've been very bold in taking up causes: The Hindu's Aparajita Biswas

What’s interesting to note is that there’s another agency that has a stronghold on The Hindu brand—Ogilvy. The Hindu Group has divided the mandate of its four brands between Talented and Ogilvy. 

Now, the WPP-owned creative giant has delivered some excellent ad copy for this client. Talented must have observed their work, surely. “We work with several brands that have multiple agency partners so this isn’t new to us. And our approach has always been to focus on the work, bringing fresh impactful ideas to the table,” she says. 

Get folks talking, online 

These days, offline campaigns—print ads, billboards, and hoardings—are designed to make them go viral online because that’s supposedly the new hot marketing metric along with brands bantering with each other. 

“In any work, absolutely, we would love to make discourse around it. I don't think we've necessarily created the angle of let us get it to social, but it was created for the medium, which was a print ad. And I think when an idea is good, it transcends medium,” she states.