Summary
- Campaign: “Yehi Hai Right Choice Baby, Aha!” (1993)
- Brand: Pepsi
- Focus: Positioning Pepsi as the ultimate, irresistible choice for the youth, using humour, summer heat, and star-studded surprises.
- Core Message: Nothing stops a thirsty mind from getting a Pepsi
- Key Insight: Pepsi targeted the emerging, liberalised Indian youth who craved western-style coolness. By blending a relatable “guy-next-door” struggle with the sudden appearance of breathtaking beauty queens, Pepsi created a pop-culture moment that redefined celebrity cameos in Indian advertising.
The 1993 Pepsi commercial starring Aamir Khan, Mahima Chaudhary, and Aishwarya Rai is widely celebrated as one of the most culturally defining and iconic advertisements in Indian television history. Directed by advertising veteran Prahlad Kakkar, the commercial was part of Pepsi’s massively successful “Yehi Hai Right Choice Baby, Aha!” campaign, which tapped perfectly into the brand-savvy mindset of liberalised, post-1991 India.
Ad plot
The commercial, which runs for less than a minute, balances fast-paced action, comedy, and a highly memorable double-twist ending:
- The ad opens on a rainy night with a young, boy-next-door Aamir Khan playing chess by himself in his apartment.
- His doorbell rings to reveal a beautiful new neighbour—played by Mahima Chaudhary (then a model known by her actual name, Ritu Chaudhary, before her Bollywood debut in Pardes). She smiles and asks, “Hi, I’m your new neighbour. Can I have a Lehar Pepsi?”.
- Desperate to impress her, Aamir discovers his own refrigerator is empty. He immediately leaps out of his window into a pouring thunderstorm, completing a frantic, action-packed obstacle course across streets and traffic to secure a single bottle from a shop just as it’s closing.
- He returns completely drenched, handing over the bottle. Just as Mahima says, “That must be Sanju,” the doorbell rings again.
- Aamir opens the door to find an stunningly beautiful Aishwarya Rai, who locks eyes with him, flips her hair, and delivers the ultimate closing line: “Hi, I’m Sanjana. Got another Pepsi?”. The ad closes on Aamir’s comically stunned, defeated face.
Reception & Recall
This commercial remains one of the most celebrated and highly recalled advertisements in the history of Indian television.
- At the time of filming, Aishwarya Rai was a college student and model who hadn’t yet won Miss India or Miss World (both of which happened in 1994). Despite only having four seconds of screen time at the very end, her appearance completely mesmerised the country. Director Prahlad Kakkar later recalled that his office received roughly 5,000 phone calls the next morning from people demanding to know who the “Sanjana girl” was.
- The ad was so intensely popular that it directly shaped real-world trends. According to marketing reports, thousands of parents across India named their newborn daughters “Sanjana” in the years following the ad’s release.
- The commercial was heavily inspired by a famous 1987 American Diet Pepsi ad starring actor Michael J. Fox, localised perfectly for Indian audiences
