In the world of cricket, tradition dictates that the game is played in white, with an air of gentlemanly decorum. And yet, in 1996, an irreverent advertising campaign challenged that notion, altering the landscape of sports marketing in India forever.

The campaign, titled “Nothing Official About It,” opened with a wry observation: “Officially, cricket is played in whites at a leisurely pace. The official players are gentlemen of restraint who have to drink the official drink.” The advertisement then unfolded with vignettes of cricketers in action – expressive, emotional, and undeniably human. Among them were Indian cricket icons Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli, and Mohammed Azharuddin. The commercial’s defining moment arrived as Tendulkar planted a stump into the ground, sipped a Pepsi, and delivered the now-iconic tagline: “Nothing Official About It.”

It was, in effect, an act of marketing rebellion. And it worked.

The Rivalry That Set the Stage

At the time, Pepsi was engaged in an intense rivalry with Coca-Cola, each vying for dominance in the lucrative Indian market. PepsiCo, the American beverage giant, had exited India in 1962 due to sluggish sales, only to return in 1989. Coca-Cola followed suit in 1993, after a 16-year absence stemming from regulatory disputes. Their reentry ignited one of the fiercest corporate battles in India’s history.

The 1996 Cricket World Cup, hosted by India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, became a battleground for this rivalry. Both Pepsi and Coca-Cola pursued the tournament’s official beverage sponsorship rights. Ultimately, Coca-Cola secured the contract with a bid of Rs 10 crore, leaving Pepsi on the sidelines.

For most companies, losing such a high-profile sponsorship might have been a blow. For Pepsi, it became an opportunity.

A Campaign Born Out of Adversity

At the time, Pepsi’s advertising was handled by JWT, where a young copywriter named Anuja Chauhan was part of the team grappling with the implications of losing the sponsorship rights. “We were banging our heads trying to figure out what to do,” Chauhan recalled in a previous interview with Storyboard18. The answer came in the form of a simple but powerful phrase: “Nothing Official About It.”

The idea struck a chord. In 1996, for the first time, the Indian cricket team donned blue jerseys instead of traditional whites – a symbolic departure from convention. The campaign’s message resonated not just with cricket fans, but with a generation of Indians eager to embrace change. “It was a big deal, because till then, officially, cricket was played in white. So when you see players in their coloured jerseys for the first time, and they’re saying ‘Nothing Official About It’, it kind of clicks,” said Chauhan. Besides, Chauhan remembered that a lot of brands had jumped on to the bandwagon of being the ‘official’ sponsor of different things pertaining to the game. So Pepsi decided to ‘change the game’, which incidentally was a later tagline.

Veteran ad filmmaker Prahlad Kakkar was brought in to produce seven television commercials, shot in locations ranging from Trinidad to Mumbai. No translations were made for regional audiences – the tagline stood on its own. In an era before team sponsorships were common, Pepsi worked directly with individual cricketers, including international stars like West Indies fast bowler Courtney Walsh.

The Impact and the Aftermath

The campaign was a runaway success, cementing Pepsi’s status as a cultural force in India. It also exemplified a marketing strategy known as “ambush marketing,” in which a brand gains visibility at an event without being an official sponsor. The fallout was swift: authorities introduced stricter regulations to curb such tactics. Future sponsorship deals stipulated that players could not endorse competing brands during tournaments.

Pepsi’s risk had paid off, but not without trepidation. At the time, there was uncertainty over whether Coca-Cola would explicitly market itself as the “official soft drink.” The concern was that Coke might opt for a more ambiguous slogan, such as “Refreshing the World Cup.” But when Coca-Cola prominently displayed its official sponsorship, Pepsi knew its counterattack was perfectly positioned. The next day, the ‘Nothing Official About It’ campaign launched, immediately capturing the public imagination.

It was a marketing coup, a testament to the power of creative audacity. Decades later, it remains one of India’s most celebrated advertising campaigns -an enduring reminder that, sometimes, the best victories come from losing the official battle, but winning the cultural war.