Back in 2013, Thums Up decided that simply walking to a shop was far too boring for any fizzy drink. Instead, they launched the legendary campaign ‘Ajj Kuch Toofani Karthe Hain’, featuring Bollywood star Salman Khan, turning a simple Cold drink into a full-blown mass masala action movie.
Running until about 2016, these adverts became less about thirst and more about hanging off helicopters. It was a time when logic took a holiday, and the only thing that mattered was getting that bottle of thunder.
Link to the campaign:
So, why did this specific campaign turn into such a massive cult phenomenon? It succeeded because it gave the audience a new vocabulary for boldness. The word ‘Toofani’ transitioned from a weather term to street slang for anything slightly reckless or energetic.
In an era where brands were trying to be deeply emotional or socially conscious, this was pure, unapologetic escapism. It respected the audience’s intelligence by not taking itself too seriously, it was a shared inside joke that allowed everyone to briefly pretend they were action heroes, turning a mundane daily routine into a moment of swagger.
The conceptualisation behind this beautiful chaos were the creative folks at Leo. They realised that a strong drink needed a strong attitude, so they swapped fuzzy feelings for the razor-sharp idea ‘I will do anything for my thunder’. This clarity made every advert instantly recognisable, whether Khan was jumping off a cliff or hijacking a truck. It certainly wasn’t subtle, but then again, neither is a thunderstorm.
Onboarding Khan wasn’t just a casting choice, it was absolute genius. He didn’t need to act like a tough guy because he already owned that macho, action-hero persona in real life. This alignment made his endorsement feel incredibly authentic to his millions of fans, rather than just a paid gig. He was the perfect human equivalent of the brand loud, strong, and impossible to ignore.
To make sure the adverts looked as expensive as a blockbuster film, production houses like RU Films were brought in to handle the heavy lifting. They created massive spectacles with high-octane stunts, proving that this wasn’t a drink for the faint-hearted.
From airlifting lorries to crashing through traffic, the cinematic scale made the adverts unmissable. It was visual popcorn that you just had to watch, even if you weren’t thirsty.
