But this year, Candyman Sourzzz, ITC Foods’ candy brand, is giving the festival an Indian makeover with its latest campaign “Candyman Sourzzz Presents: A Desi Halloween”, reviving the legends of Indian folklore with a twist.
The campaign unfolds through a series of character introductions on social media, each revealing one of the three legends - Sour Sundari, Tangy Tantrik, and Meetha Khatkula. The digital-first launch reawakens these forgotten Indian spirits inside a crumbling haveli until they rediscover their “flavour of horror” through Candyman Sourzzz.
Anuj Bansal, Vice President and Head of Marketing – Chocolates, Coffee and Confectionary, Foods Division, ITC, said, “With Candyman Sourzzz, we’ve always aimed to make sourness fun and exciting for young India. This Halloween, we wanted to localize the thrill by celebrating our own folklore in a playful, modern way. A Desi Halloween reintroduces the ghosts and legends we grew up hearing about through fun, flavour, and nostalgia making Halloween uniquely Indian in spirit and taste.”
Suchitra Gahlot, National Creative Director, FCB India, said, “Halloween is relatively new to India. But the idea of ‘Horror’ isn’t. We used the Bollywood Horror genre from the 90’s, as inspiration to get our candy-loving desi kids to celebrate Halloween, desi style. So aside from pumpkins, witches on brooms and skeletons, we wanted kids to also learn about horror imagery that is representative of our culture - in the form of Bhoot Banglas, Daayans, Bhoot Pret, Tantriks. We wanted ITC Candyman to become the brand that owns Halloween - culturally, visually and with a sense of fun. And we had so much fun doing this body of work too.”
The campaign will also see influencer collaboration with content creators known for their spooky storytelling.
