HP’s Diwali Film Earns Admiration, Not Brand Recall
HP's Lights of Change spotlights six Indian innovations. The elevation lands, but the brand's role stays abstract. A behavioural critique.
Our score: 6/10 · HP, “Diwali campaign spotlighting six Indian innovations”
Verdict: A warm purpose film that earns goodwill but leaves HP's role abstract rather than memorable.
What works
- Moral elevation from real, specific problem-solvers
- Diwali framing makes technology feel human and hopeful
- Six stories broaden relevance and invite participation
What misses
- HP is a spectator, not a participant; the brand link is thin
- Six segments dilute a single memorable identity
The lesson: Purpose sticks only when the brand's role is specific; otherwise the emotional credit goes to the hero, not the logo.
HP India’s Diwali campaign, Lights of Change, is a purpose film first and a brand film second. The source names no agency or director. It spotlights six Indian innovations solving hard problems: a self-learning Braille device called Annie, an affordable bionic arm, CareMother’s fetal heartbeat monitoring platform, and solutions for agricultural waste, urban flooding and river pollution. A companion digital platform invites people to share community innovations through LinkedIn, Instagram and X.
The ad
The campaign runs on a light metaphor already loaded with cultural meaning. Ipsita Dasgupta, senior vice-president and managing director at HP India, positions the effort as celebrating people who “see possibility where others see a challenge.” That is the strategic centre: HP wants the audience to associate its brand with human potential, not hardware.
What works
The most powerful behavioural lever is moral elevation—the warm admiration we feel when someone does good. A Braille device and a bionic arm are specific, nameable solutions, not vague causes. That specificity gives the admiration a target.
The festival frame does useful work. Diwali is already a festival of light, so “Lights of Change” maps neatly onto renewal and progress without sounding like a corporate slogan. Six stories widen relevance: one viewer may connect with maternal health, another with flooding or waste.
The participation prompt adds a light behavioural nudge. Asking people to share innovations on LinkedIn, Instagram and X lets them signal identity and social capital. It turns a one-way film into a small public act.
What misses
The brand thread is thin. The source describes HP as believing in technology and celebrating ideas, but it does not show a concrete HP contribution to any solution. That makes HP a spectator. Emotional transfer requires attribution: if the viewer cannot name what the brand did, the glow stays with the innovators.
Six segments also dilute memory. A single hero story tends to create a stronger retrieval cue than a montage of six. The campaign risks becoming a gallery of good ideas with no clear owner.
The verdict
6/10. The film earns genuine admiration, but it behaves like a public-service reel with a logo. It moves the audience; it does not give them a reason to remember HP.
The lesson
Borrowed purpose works only when the brand’s role is specific and demonstrable. If the logo were removed and the story still worked, it was never really your story.
Watch the original: HP on YouTube. Shown for review; the rights stay with the brand.
Source: Afaqs!
