Vicks Touch of Care: The ad that made care a brand moat

The ad and when it ran

Vicks India released “Touch of Care” in 2017. The film told the real story of Gauri Sawant, a transgender activist and mother, and her adopted daughter Gayatri. It was a deliberate break from category advertising. Where most vapour rub work talked about blocked noses, chest congestion and night-time relief, this film talked about family.

The product barely appeared. What carried the long-form film was everyday maternal care: worry, protection, school, paperwork, reassurance. The campaign’s line, “Care lives on,” positioned Vicks as a quiet witness to that care rather than the hero of the story.

The levers it pulled

Three behavioural principles did the heavy lifting.

• Narrative transportation. The film used a close, documentary-style story: a real person, a real child, real tension. When viewers are transported into a story, they suspend counter-arguing. A product claim invites scepticism; a story invites feeling.
• Social identity signalling. By showing a transgender mother as simply a mother, the ad let inclusive Indian families see themselves in the brand. Sharing or praising the film became a small identity statement: this is what care looks like in my world.
• Emotional halo. The tenderness of the story transferred to the brand. Viewers did not remember a menthol ingredient; they remembered how the film made them feel about care.

What it did for the brand and the culture around it

For Vicks, the campaign created an emotional moat in a category that mostly competes on function and price. It made the brand feel like a participant in India’s shifting definition of family, not just a pack on a pharmacy shelf. In the years since, it has become a reference point for purpose-led advertising in India.

Culturally, the film arrived when conversations about transgender rights and chosen family were moving from the margins to the mainstream. It gave those ideas a nationally visible brand platform and made Gauri Sawant a recognisable face of maternal care, not a stereotype.

The campaign’s win was not just emotional. It gave Vicks a story structure—care across generations—that could extend into later work. It also showed that an old, trusted remedy brand could lead a cultural conversation without pretending to be an activist organisation.

What still works today and what would not

What still works: a specific, real human story; a universal value such as care; and a brand willing to stay quiet long enough for the feeling to land.

What would not: the same approach today demands higher proof. Indian audiences are quicker to spot purpose-washing. A brand that borrows a marginalised person’s story but does not invest in that community beyond the film risks a backlash. Long-form storytelling also has to earn attention faster; the same film posted today would likely need sharper pacing, captions and a shorter mobile cut.

Watch the original: Vicks on YouTube