GIVA pulls Kriti Sanon Rakhi campaign after social-media backlash
Jewellery brand GIVA has withdrawn its Raksha Bandhan advertisement featuring actor Kriti Sanon following criticism of her outfit and a scene showing her tying a rakhi to a pet dog.
What happened
Jewellery brand GIVA withdrew its Raksha Bandhan advertisement featuring actor Kriti Sanon after social-media criticism over her outfit and the depiction of
Why this matters
Potential partners should treat the incident as a diligence signal on GIVA’s brand-governance and celebrity-campaign approval processes.
What to watch
- Whether Kriti Sanon, GIVA or influential critics make further public statements.
- Persistence of negative sentiment beyond 48-72 hours and emergence of boycott hashtags.
- Raksha Bandhan traffic, conversion and order-volume performance against pre-campaign benchmarks.
- Extent of campaign takedowns across social, OTT, digital publishers and retail displays.
- Competitor jewellery brands launching culturally safer festive messaging or targeting GIVA's audience.
- Any retailer, franchise or marketplace feedback indicating offline customer concern.
- Issue a brief acknowledgement and avoid a defensive public argument.
- Replace the campaign quickly with product-led, family-centric Raksha Bandhan assets.
- Shift spend toward creator-led regional content, CRM, app push notifications and retargeting to preserve festive conversion.
- Review cultural-sensitivity, pet depiction and celebrity-creative approval processes before upcoming festive campaigns.
- Monitor sentiment, cancellation rates, branded-search trends and campaign replacement costs daily.