Counterculture is constant: Ogilvy’s Sridharan on how 5 Star reinvents V-Day campaigns every year

Every Valentine’s Day, while most brands lean into romance, Cadbury 5 Star does the exact opposite.

Last year, 5 Star executed its Destroy Valentine’s Day campaign by encouraging ‘uncles’ to hijack the occasion, and before that, they planned to Erase Valentine’s Day with a time-travel vessel set to erase the mushy 24 hours in a single minute.

This year, the brand briefly teased a change in stance, promising to ‘restore Valentine’s Day’ by sponsoring 1 million dates. However, the final reveal stayed true to 5 Star’s long-running philosophy- suggesting that the best way to celebrate the occasion is by following a ‘research-backed’ ideal date plan that ultimately leads to doing nothing.

For Karunasagar Sridharan, executive creative director at Ogilvy, the Valentine’s brief has always been disarmingly simple.

Unlike most chocolate brands that actively position themselves as Valentine’s gifting choices, 5 Star does not treat the occasion as a core sales moment, says Sridharan.

“For 5 Star, Valentine’s Day was never associated with the brand in a sales-driven way. The primary goal is to entertain people, stay top of mind, and build brand equity. Any sales boost is a consequence, not the objective,” he adds.

Over time, what began as a fun seasonal association has evolved into a more significant part of the brand’s annual marketing calendar, with the campaign also contributing to broader chocolate consumption around the period.

Playing with expectations

Talking about this year’s teaser-led approach, Sridharan reveals that the idea stemmed from conversations following the brand’s earlier anti-Valentine campaigns.

After the success of Destroy Valentine’s Day, the team began thinking about how to escalate the narrative. Sridharan recalls how during discussions, one of his responses began as a joke, and eventually, it evolved into this year’s campaign.

“Just as a joke, I thought I would say, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll resurrect it and bring it back to life just so that we can destroy it again.”

Sridharan stumbled upon an interesting historical insight about how Valentine’s Day began. “Then it just felt like a beautiful fit. So the idea was born.”

Launching a teaser before the main film was a calculated risk, especially in an environment where getting audiences to watch sequential content is difficult. However, the team believed the brand had built enough cultural equity for audiences to engage with a multi-layered rollout.

The teaser included references to disappointed consumers who were supposedly tired of 5 Star “destroying” Valentine’s Day.

So was that real backlash?

“In reality, 99.9% of comments on our campaigns are all laughing or enjoying it,” Sridharan clarifies.

He says that most consumer reactions to past campaigns have been positive, with the “apology” narrative mainly used as a form of misdirection to make the reveal more engaging.

Given the scale and unpredictability of execution, 5 Star typically locks in campaign ideas months in advance. Some ideas can be logistically complex, and the fixed nature of February 14 leaves little room for delays.

Why build a website for separate campaigns?

Each year, 5 Star goes beyond the film. There are dedicated websites, registrations, and extended experiences. This year: RestoreValentines.com.

Why invest in something that doesn’t directly sell chocolate?

“The purpose of it is simply that others aren’t doing it,” Sridharan says with a smile.
He points to a past campaign called Nothing University, where the team created a full-fledged course complete with lectures and certificates.

“We could have simply produced the film. But we made a full course. Over three lakh people completed the course. They posted the certificates online.”

And this is not a business transaction. The brand gains nothing from doing it and does not sell 5 Stars because of it. But that’s part of the experience.

Even this year’s teaser proved the appetite is real. “On the first day, if I remember right, some 20,000 people already registered, and the film was barely even a few hours in.”

Coexisting with Silk romance

Within Mondelez’s portfolio, Valentine’s Day is approached very differently across brands.
While 5 Star leans into anti-Valentine storytelling and counter-culture humour, Cadbury Silk continues to occupy the traditional romantic territory, positioning itself as a go-to gifting chocolate for couples.

Sridharan says brands within Mondelez’s portfolio largely operate independently, though sometimes campaigns end up naturally complementing or contrasting each other.

In the past, brands like 5 Star and Oreo have collaborated at the product level, but they typically handle Valentine's communication separately to maintain their distinct brand identities.

The broader market context shows that Valentine’s Day continues to be a strong consumption moment, particularly for chocolates. According to a consumer study by Hansa Research Group, the occasion is regaining relevance in India this year, with engagement now largely driven by financially independent young adults, with over 64% of respondents in the 26–35 age group.

Also Read: Why Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk wants you to ditch AI for Valentine’s Day

While flowers and dining out remain key spends, chocolates and confectionery continue to be a core part of Valentine’s gifting, with over half of respondents including them in their plans— reinforcing why the occasion remains strategically important for chocolate brands, even when approached through very different narratives.

As Sridharan laughs and adds, “Maybe in the future we’ll surprise people by doing a joint campaign with Silk and 5 Star.”

For now, though, the anti-Valentine stance remains culturally relevant.

On anti-Valentine fatigue

Sridharan dismisses concerns around consumer fatigue, arguing that counter-culture narratives are constant across generations.

“Any sort of social norm always has a counterculture associated with it,” he explains. “With 90s kids, you’d rebel by growing long hair. Today’s kids rebel by doing something else. There’s always a pushback.”

And the bigger risk, according to him, isn’t irrelevance; it’s repetition.

“There is fear of being stale,” he admits. “But we try to always move one step up instead of moving forward.”

He elaborates: “The campaign we did this year, I wouldn’t have presented to you three years back. It was too early. The audience has to evolve along with the campaign.”

After destroying V-Day again, what’s next?

While teaser-plus-main film storytelling could return in the future, Sridharan said it will depend on the idea and audience context. The campaign’s “research-backed Valentine’s package”, he added, is a real engagement mechanic, with tens of thousands of users already participating.

In terms of the future of Valentine's communication, he believes that while brands may attempt to expand the definition of the occasion, its core association with romance is unlikely to change.

For Five Star, though, the celebration will likely continue to come with a wink – not roses.
Because, as Sridharan puts it, the mission has never changed: “Unless we are entertaining people, there is absolutely no reason to do a campaign.”

Before the anti-Valentine narrative, 5 Star’s humour DNA was shaped by pop-culture characters like Ramesh and Suresh, the brothers from “Jo Khaaye, Kho Jaaye” campaign.

View this post on Instagram