Making space for Zeera, one absurd sip at a time

Mumbai-based advertising agency, Enormous, has rolled out a sequel to its 2024 ‘Har Koi Peera Lahori Zeera’ (Everyone is drinking Lahori Zeera) campaign. Rather than resetting the brand narrative for the carbonated soft drink, the new film deliberately stays within the same cultural framework, reflecting a strategic choice to build continuity in a cluttered market where challenger brands often struggle to sustain recall beyond a breakout moment.

The original campaign positioned Lahori Zeera as a culturally rooted alternative to mainstream carbonated beverages. By anchoring the brand in familiar behaviours and language, ‘Har Koi Peera Lahori Zeera’ moved beyond functional claims and sought resonance through recognisable social cues. Rolled out across multiple markets, it contributed to brand recall and engagement, helping the Punjab-based Lahori Zeera reinforce its identity as a challenger in a category dominated by global cola players.

The sequel follows the same narrative thread, retaining the tone and references that defined the first film, while nudging the story forward rather than reworking it. Enormous, the agency behind the ad, stated that its intent was not reinvention, but reinforcement.

“There is a long held myth that while first campaigns create impact, sequels rarely live up to the original,” Enormous noted in a press note. The new film, it said, aims to retain the charm, energy and recall of the first instalment while staying relevant to current audiences. The emphasis is on familiarity without stagnation, a balance that brands increasingly need to strike as media consumption fragments and attention spans compress.

Ashish Khazanchi, managing partner, Enormous, framed the thinking in terms of brand longevity rather than short-term creative novelty. “The campaign struck a chord with audiences across markets, driving high recall and engagement, and establishing the brand as a formidable challenger that gives giant cola brands a run for their money. Enduring brands are built on ideas strong enough to outlast narratives. ‘Har Koi Peera Lahori Zeera’ succeeded because of its simplicity and honesty. When an idea is truly powerful, it doesn’t need reinvention, it needs consistency. Brands like Fevicol exemplify this belief,” he said.

From the brand’s perspective, the sequel reflects an attempt to stay aligned with consumer behaviour rather than escalate volume or spectacle. Saurabh Munjal, co-founder and CEO of Archian Foods (Lahori Zeera’s parent company), positioned the campaign as an exercise in restraint.

“With this campaign, we didn’t want to shout louder — we wanted to speak truer. Lahori Zeera has always stood for bold flavour and honest personality, and the film reflects that spirit. It’s witty, unapologetic, and rooted in real consumer behaviour, which is exactly how we like to build our brand. Thanks again to the dream team Enormous and Early Man Films,” he said.

The sequel forms part of Enormous’s ongoing engagement with Lahori Zeera, focused on maintaining continuity in communication while ensuring the brand does not feel dated or repetitive. For advertising and marketing professionals, the campaign offers a case study in how consistency can be deployed as a strategic tool—particularly for challenger brands that lack the budgets of category leaders but aim to build memory structures over time.

Campaign’s take: Lahori Zeera’s second outing of Har Koi Peera Lahori Zeera does what most sequels are afraid to do: it stays put. Instead of chasing novelty, it leans harder into what worked the first time. So, exaggeration becomes cultural familiarity, while absurdity paves the road to straight-faced commitment.

The film builds on the earlier idea by playfully dramat­ising just how irresistible the drink is. People carve holes in hats, helmets, car roofs, musical instruments, umbrellas, hair steamers and even ceilings, all for one simple reason: to tilt the bottle just enough to finish every last drop.

The joke, of course, is on the ludicrousness of the extreme lengths that people are willing to go to for a common, everyday jeera drink. And that irony is precisely the point. The ‘Har Koi Peera Lahori Zeera’ punchline lands as less of a claim and more of an observation with this film, underpinning that everyone drinks it, so everyone makes space for it.

In a market where advertising often resets itself every quarter, this sequel reworks the narrative rather than recreating it. It quietly challenges the belief that follow-ups dilute impact and instead shows how repetition, when done with intent, can deepen memory.

Crucially, the ad isn’t selling flavour, price or celebrity faces. Instead, it’s selling habit. By positioning Lahori Zeera positions as the default—something anyone can have, anywhere, without overthinking—the ad is not just making a creative choice but a behavioural one. In a category dominated by multinational giants, once the laugh settles, that could well set the cash registers ringing.