'Marvelous and Pertinent': Surf Excel's Ramzan Ad amid Covid-19 is Leaving Twitter Teary-eyed

Even as Ramzan celebration the world over have been subdued due to the coronavirus pandemic, a new advertisement by Surf Excel has been bringing cheer and warming hearts this festive season. Known for making advertisements that highlight communal harmony, Surf Excel's new advertisement showcases how people can do good at a time of crisis, even from the confines of their home.

The ad begins with a young boy, asking his father, a doctor, about how he could do good deeds and help others in the holy month of Ramzan amid the coronavirus lockdown. The father tells the kid that if there is a will to do good deeds, there is always a way.

Through the rest of the nearly two-minute-long ad, the little boy along with other children can be seen performing multiple deeds of kindness such as packing a meal for the watchman, delivering groceries at an elderly man's door, sending thank you cards to medical workers and so on. all the deeds were performed while maintaining social distancing measures.

The father ends with Surf Excel's tagline "Dirt is good" (daag ache hain) and the message that even in tough times doing a good deed was just as easy.

The ad was released by Surf Excel Pakistan and is the latest in their oeuvre of well-loved Ramzan advertisements.

The ad has been going viral on social media and bringing cheer to netizens. A Twitter user wrote that the ad had taken her breath away and was indeed "marvelous, gratifying and pertinent to our times".

This is not the first Surf Excel festive ad that went viral on Indian Twitter. In March 2019, the company launched an ad on Holi featuring a Hindu and Muslim child with a message of communal harmony. The advertisement divided Twitterati with many praising the ad while others called for boycotting both the and Surf Excel.