The solution
Jim Jam Pops is Britannia's challenger cream biscuit in an Indian market where Oreo's twist-lick-dunk ritual dominates both shelf and airtime. Ahead of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024, agency The Womb found a live fan superstition: every time Oreo's ads ran during India's matches, the team seemed to lose. Instead of a conventional celebrity cricket ad, the brand built its entire campaign on prosecuting that joke.
The 'No Ad. No Twist.' film, fronted by comedic actors, formally requested that Oreo abstain from advertising during the tournament — for the nation's sake. The gag needed no media weight to travel: it named no rival directly yet was unmistakable, and it made Jim Jam Pops' own product truth (no twist) the punchline of the competitor's signature ritual. A microsite, notwist.in, invited fans to vote in support.
India won the World Cup. The brand closed the loop with 'We Broke the Jinx. We Won the World Cup.', and the campaign became India's only Film Lions shortlist at Cannes Lions 2025 — a result trade coverage framed as standout storytelling from a small brand punching at the leader.
What it achieved
Don't outspend the leader; prosecute its superstition in public
Why it worked
The superstition already existed among fans, so the brand paid nothing to create the insight — only to amplify it.
Attacking the rival's ritual ('twist') doubles as a product claim for Jim Jam Pops ('no twist'), so the joke sells.
Challenger asymmetry: Oreo could not respond without validating the jinx narrative.
India's actual World Cup win gave the campaign a perfect, unplanned punchline it was built to exploit.
What can be applied
A challenger can't outspend the leader, but it can borrow the leader's cultural footprint and make it the story — especially when fans already did the positioning work.
Aftermath
The follow-up 'We Broke the Jinx. We Won the World Cup' film earned India's sole Film Lions shortlist at Cannes Lions 2025 (Challenger Brand sub-category), giving a low-budget challenger campaign the same stage as global heavyweight work.
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