Every year, Cannes Lions serves as a global checkpoint for the advertising industry, where creative work is not just showcased, but dissected for the ideas, insights, and cultural moments it reflects. For Indian agencies, it’s both a platform and a pressure test: to see how homegrown narratives, innovations, and provocations stand up on an international stage.
The submissions to Cannes are telling. They offer a snapshot of what agencies choose to champion, critique, or reframe through their work matters. In 2025, the entries from India span a wide thematic and tonal range, from purpose-driven experiments to deeply local stories with universal appeal.
This series aims to break down what India is sending to Cannes this year, not as a list of potential winners, but as a lens on where Indian advertising is heading, and what conversations it hopes to spark globally.
We begin with Wondrlab, whose three entries, ‘Bill of Pride’, ‘The Right Sign’, and ‘One More Tika’, tackle identity, accessibility, and public health, respectively. All three are rooted in culture but aim for structural nudges. Whether they win or not, their intention is clear: to trigger reflection and, ideally, action.
Keshav Suri Foundation - Bill of Pride
In collaboration with the Keshav Suri Foundation, 6 Degrees Diversity Council, and Ungender, Bill of Pride aims to challenge brands to convert Pride Month symbolism into long-term action. Rather than asking for donations, the campaign sends companies a customised “bill” calculated on the basis of their social media engagement during Pride Month, outlining tangible actions like hiring LGBTQIA+ talent, offering same-sex partner benefits, and hosting sensitisation workshops.
Amit Akali, CCO & Co-founder, and Gauri Gokarn, Content Lead on the project, said the idea channels the bold, guerrilla spirit often recognised at Cannes. “It cleverly turned a mundane corporate format, the invoice, into a powerful call for year-round LGBTQ+ inclusion at work,” they said. “It became a clear call to action: silence is complicity, and brands can’t sit this out.”
The campaign, entered in categories like Creative B2B and Glass, gained urgency after global rollbacks in LGBTQIA+ protections in early 2025. According to Akali and Gokarn, it’s not just creating conversation but sparking real policy change inside boardrooms.
They said, “The campaign has sparked real change - inclusive hiring, sensitivity training, gender-neutral infrastructure, and serious policy conversations. Most importantly, it’s made its way into boardrooms, forcing leadership to question whether their allyship is performative or real.”
While 'Bill of Pride' challenges corporate allyship, Wondrlab’s second campaign turns to music culture as a vehicle for accessibility and inclusion.
The Right Sign: Making sign language mainstream through rap culture
A partnership with VerSe Innovation, Signing Hands Foundation, and Lucifer Music, The Right Sign aims to flip the script on gang signs in Indian rap videos, replacing them with Indian Sign Language (ISL). Featuring artists like Indeep Bakshi, Enkore, and V-Town Chronicles, the campaign led to India’s first mainstream rap videos in ISL and launched a 40-phrase ISL tutorial for the public.
Akali and Onkar Warade, Content Partner who conceived the idea, explained that The Right Sign uses Indian rap as a vehicle to introduce sign language to a wider audience. “It takes on the American gang signs that Indian rappers use and their fans pick up, something that has little relevance in India,” they said.
They shared that since launch, it has found visibility in news media and pop culture conversations, with public figures engaging with it in unexpected ways, including an author who has started learning ISL to include it in her upcoming work.
“This is the kind of impact you can’t measure in numbers,” they added.
The campaign has been entered across categories like Health & Wellness, Entertainment Lions for Music, Sustainable Development Goals, Social & Creator and Glass.
If sign language in rap brought inclusion into the mainstream, Wondrlab’s third entry merged ritual with health to address an often-overlooked issue.
One More Tika: Turning ritual into rabies prevention
Built on the Hindu ritual of Kukur Tihar, where dogs are worshipped with a vermillion “tika”, One More Tika creatively overlaps the cultural symbol with its homonym “tika” as in a vaccine shot. In collaboration with Pawfect Foods, the campaign used the ritual as an entry point to vaccinate over 5,000 dogs in India, addressing a disease responsible for a third of global rabies deaths.
Akali and Rahul Chandwani, who led the campaign, felt the cultural connection gave it a strong Cannes appeal. “We felt this piece was Cannes-worthy because it came from culture and gave back to culture,” they said. “Any piece of advertising that helps save lives is likely to be considered, and this one helped save lives across species.”
The entry finds a place in the Animal Welfare in Pharma category, combining cultural storytelling with measurable health impact.
“In India, anything to do with religion is taken rather seriously and followed to the t. Which is why we were able to create the impact that we did, and we're hoping that it grows year on year.”
As the Cannes Lions stage prepares to spotlight work from around the world, India’s submissions continue to reflect a mix of cultural grounding and creative ambition.
Wondrlab’s entries this year signal a desire to explore pressing societal issues through unconventional formats, from invoices and rituals to music videos. Whether or not these campaigns convert into metal, they represent the kind of thinking that pushes the boundaries of advertising’s role in public discourse.
In the coming days, this series will continue to explore what other Indian agencies are sending to Cannes and what those choices say about the industry’s direction.
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