Diwali 2022: A touching ad from Cadbury Celebrations to support street hawkers

Diwali 2022: Cadbury Celebrations has launched a campaign to support street vendors (Cadbury Celebrations/YouTube)

Ahead of Diwali, Cadbury Celebrations has launched a campaign to empower street hawkers who have no permanent shops. A short ad film released as part of the #ShopsForShopless campaign seems to have struck a chord with viewers, racking up more than 18 million views on YouTube in less than a fortnight.

The ad begins with a doctor in search of a street vendor, Damodar, who sells diyas. On finally locating him after looking for two days, the doctor presents him with a box of Cadbury Celebrations. But he soon reveals he has another, longer-lasting gift in store for the hawker – a virtual shop from him to ply his wares.

“Hawkers bring us the joy of Diwali but the lack of a permanent shop causes them to lose business. This year, Cadbury Celebrations is opening virtual #ShopsforShopless, where consumers can find hawkers near them with a click,” the brand tweeted.

Cadbury Celebrations is leveraging QR code technology for its campaign to open virtual shops. According to Exchange4Media, under the initiative, consumers can open virtual shops for local hawkers by adding details like vendor name, phone number and product images.x

Customers can scan the QR code on Cadbury Celebrations packs to discover nearby hawkers and shop for products.

Anil Viswanathan, Vice President - Marketing, Mondelez India said, “Looking beyond small businesses, we collectively realized how Diwali is an important period for hawkers, but their business is often affected due to no permanent spot/shop to sell the products.

“Building on this insight and keeping purpose at the core of our strategy, we conceptualized #ShopsForShopless; an effort to give hawkers a permanent virtual store,” Viswanathan, adding that he hoped consumers would participate in small acts of generosity to make Diwali brighter for everyone.