TBWA India’s Cannes 2025 entry reflects on language, identity, and expression

As the global creative community gears up for Cannes Lions 2025, agencies across India are once again putting forward their most culturally grounded and creatively ambitious work. The festival, known for spotlighting campaigns that blend storytelling with insight, continues to be a key moment for Indian agencies to reflect on the evolving identity of their audiences and how best to communicate with them. Among the entries this year is TBWA India’s The Inglish Dictionary, a campaign for Air India Express that reconsiders the relationship between language, identity, and cultural confidence in modern India.

Campaign: The Inglish Dictionary

At the heart of the campaign lies a simple idea: What happens when a language is no longer borrowed, but made your own? Indians have long been infusing English with local nuance, turning it into something neither strictly colonial nor entirely native. TBWA India calls this evolved form Inglish, a language that mirrors the country’s emotional, social, and cultural reality.

Air India Express, which positions itself as a brand for young, confident travellers, extended this idea into a cultural artifact: The Inglish Dictionary. More than a compilation of words, it’s a designed document that elevates everyday Indian English into something worthy of preservation. Words often dismissed as incorrect or colloquial are given space, definition, and artistic expression—particularly through the use of Sohrai, an indigenous tribal art form traditionally passed from mothers to daughters.

By framing Inglish not as broken, but as bold and beautifully Indian, the campaign shifts the lens from correction to celebration. 

“The Inglish Dictionary is more than a book,” shared TBWA India’s Russell Barrett. “It's a cultural artifact brought alive through design. It takes a widely spoken yet unofficial language and gives it the cultural legitimacy of a real dictionary. It crosses conventional boundaries by combining lexicography, cultural insight, and indigenous art into one cohesive piece of design.”

The campaign has been entered in categories including Social Behaviour, Culture Engagement, Publication & Editorial Design, and Art Direction. Barrett explained that it fits naturally across these verticals, sitting at the intersection of culture, creativity, and craft. “Every page is wrapped in the vibrant beauty of Sohrai - An indigenous tribal art that symbolises creation and is traditionally passed down from mothers to daughters and painted during sacred gestation months. A fitting parallel as we birth a whole new language. The layout, typography, and illustrations are carefully crafted to echo the charm of the words themselves,” he said.

By turning everyday expressions into art, and a hybrid tongue into a symbol of identity, TBWA India has crafted a piece that feels both deeply local and universally resonant. As the agency steps into Cannes Lions 2025, it does so not just to compete, but to contribute to the evolving global conversation around creativity, culture, and the stories we choose to own.