Borrowing sugar from neighbours is so passé, say Instamart ads

The new ads play on a very real insight - of showing up at a neighbour's doorstep when supplies run out.

Before quick grocery delivery was an option for customers to avail, people had to find ways to improvise, if they had a grocery emergency. Grocery emergencies may not be a matter of life or death, but it is something that has to be immediately dealt with.

Imagine a pot of boiling water and, all of a sudden, a person realises he has run out of tea leaves. Or, a person is all set to make biryani for a Sunday brunch and realises he doesn't have basmati rice in stock.

Before the quick grocery delivery rage, such people had two options. One, to send someone to run to the nearby store and pick up the missing ingredients. Or, to knock on a friendly neighbour's door and borrow a small portion of the required ingredient. The latter is the insight that Swiggy Instamart's latest ads play on.

In the first ad, we see a hopeful young man, innocently suggesting to his mother that they borrow sugar from the neighbour's house in order to catch a glimpse of his crush - Dolly Gupta. His sister foils his plans with an Instamart order, much to his annoyance.

However, the story doesn't end there. Gupta makes a comeback in the second ad in the series. The young man orders hair gel, deodorant and other male grooming accessories to prep for his 'at-home' date with her, with a little help from Instamart.