Sunfeast Marie Light’s latest campaign pivots around a simple behavioural insight: even shared downtime is increasingly dominated by screens. Through its “divorce your phones” messaging, the ITC-owned biscuit brand is attempting to reposition tea-time as a space for interpersonal connection rather than passive scrolling. Emotional content is the key The campaign enters a crowded snacking category where functional differentiation has become harder. For legacy biscuit brands, emotional context is increasingly becoming the sharper branding tool. Instead of competing purely on taste, pricing or health cues, brands are now attaching themselves to lifestyle anxieties — in this case, digital distraction and relationship fatigue.
Attention Economy Becomes Advertising Territory The larger advertising signal is notable. Indian FMCG marketers are increasingly building campaigns around attention fragmentation, screen fatigue and digital overload. Categories traditionally associated with routine consumption — biscuits, tea, packaged foods — are now borrowing from wellness and culture narratives to create relevance. For agencies, this reflects a broader shift from product-led storytelling to behaviour-led positioning. The creative route also fits platform realities: short-form video ecosystems reward instantly relatable social tensions more than traditional feature advertising.
The Strategic Read Importantly, the campaign is designed for conversation-first distribution. The “phone divorce” framing is meme-compatible, creator-friendly and easy to localise across digital platforms without requiring high production complexity. Tea-time advertising in India has historically sold togetherness. What has changed is the perceived threat. Our insight Earlier campaigns competed against busy schedules. Today, they are competing against the smartphone in consumers’ hands.