Why Cashfree’s Soan Papdi Joke Makes B2B Marketing Work

Cashfree has brought the soan papdi joke to festive-season B2B marketing. Its new campaign, ‘Mithai Joint Family’, features comedian Biswa Kalyan Rath holding a box of soan papdi and making the observation almost everyone recognises: during Diwali, everyone receives it, but few actually eat it. He then introduces an assorted sweet box—the ‘mithai joint family’—with soan papdi sitting alongside other sweets.

The comparison is aimed at merchants. Cashfree argues that high payment success rates have become a standard expectation in the payments gateway category, yet many businesses still accept the category equivalent of soan papdi rather reluctantly.

Aditi Olemann, vice president of marketing and communications at Cashfree, explained why the joke was chosen.

“The soan papdi joke works because everybody has lived it.”

She added that merchants face the same pattern when they assess payment gateways, and that the brand wanted to break that assumption without falling into the usual B2B pitch.

Recognition does the selling

The campaign is a case study in how ordinary recognition can do heavy lifting. A shared cultural script triggers immediate understanding. The audience does not need to be told why receiving soan papdi is funny; they have lived it. That is the familiarity heuristic at work: people process familiar material faster and with less resistance, so the brand’s next argument inherits that ease.

Why it matters for marketers

Most B2B advertising talks about products, infrastructure and uptime. Cashfree borrows emotional texture from a festival ritual. The result is a message that feels observational rather than promotional.

The launch lands during the festive season, when online sales volumes increase and payment infrastructure costs can add pressure for smaller businesses. That makes the joke strategically timed, not just comic relief.

What you can take from it

• Find a shared ritual your audience already recognises, and let it carry the category point.
• Attach the product claim to the joke, not the other way around; humour is the delivery, not the message.
• Choose a voice that matches the insight—observational and dry, not corporate and polished.
• Time the message to a moment when the audience feels the pressure most.

For brand managers, the lesson is not to chase virality with random festival references. The soan papdi analogy works because both sides of the comparison—the sweet and the payment gateway—share a pattern of reluctant acceptance. If the analogy does not reflect real behaviour, the humour will stay empty.

Source: ETBrandEquity.com