The campaign is built around para Olympics and athletes. It captures their journey, in an emotional and powerful narrative that talks about the taunts they have to face even after being world class athletes and focuses on turning it into their strength, by asking them to #WearTheTaunt and give it back to the world.

Thums Up, a heroic Indian Coca-Cola brand, that has always stood against naysayers, decided to partner the Paralympic Games, and stand with the Indian Paralympians. But the objective was not just to cheer for them, but make the world notice their resilience, and to reflect their strength and more importantly hear their stories as they turn things upside-down.

From calling someone on wheelchair a scooter, to calling someone a dwarf, disabled people in India grow up hearing taunts every day. Even world class athletes are not spared. Thums Up, a heroic Indian Coca-Cola brand, that has always stood against naysayers, decided to partner the Paralympic Games, and launched hashtag #WearYourTaunt. We spoke to the Indian Paralympic squad about the worst taunts they ever faced. We then put those very taunts big and bold on their T-shirts. T shirts, they would wear during TOKYO 2020. Turning the power of these taunts from shame to inspiration. We created a rousing emotional film with them wearing these t-shirts. In a matter of hours, the film went viral. It opened floodgates of emotions with millions resonating with it.

In India a person’s disability becomes their primary identifier and they are often ridiculed for their disability. A person on a wheelchair is taunted as slow-motion. A dwarf is called ‘half-ticket’. A person without limbs is called ‘lula and langda’ (limbless). Killing their self-confidence, one taunt at a time. Thums Up wanted to show the world that there’s more to specially abled people than the handicap which meets the eye. We had to do this by adopting an empowering tone of voice, and give it back to the naysayers, instead of having a sympathetic conversation.

We created a series of films, posters, and digital content to spread the message in an impactful and engaging manner. We made the athletes wear the harshest taunts they have face and brought them alive on 19th August 2021 and the campaign ran till 7th September, 2021. We aired the films on TV and digital platforms, across regions, for a pan India reach.

The campaign reached over 100 million Indians on Social Media (Source: Social Listening). There was a spike of 150% in the google search for disabled people in India (Source: Google Trends).

The positive sentiment towards the topic went up by 35% (Source: Social Listening).