GIVA: How a Dog, a Rakhi, and a Silver Pet Tag Sparked India's Newest Marketing Debate

Every Raksha Bandhan, Indian jewellery brands compete for the same emotional territory, a sister tying a thread on her brother's wrist. In 2026, GIVA decided that territory needed to be a little bigger, and it built an entire product line, and a fair amount of controversy, around the idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujG3DC96xlg

An Idea That Started With One Dog, One Year Earlier

The story behind GIVA's Pet Collection didn't begin this year. It began in 2025, with a campaign called "Ties of Love," featuring actor Anushka Sharma. In that film, Sharma ties a rakhi onto her pet dog, jokingly complains that he won't even get her a gift in return, and the dog promptly leads her to a GIVA gift box. At the time, the brand spoke publicly about wanting to expand the idea of Raksha Bandhan beyond biological siblings, to friends and pets who make people feel protected and loved. It was a small emotional twist inside a larger campaign.

A year later, GIVA decided that twist deserved to become the whole story.

From a Cameo to a Collection

In July 2026, GIVA launched its new Raksha Bandhan campaign, titled "Furever Sibling," alongside a dedicated new product line: the Pet Collection. Fronted by brand ambassador Kriti Sanon, the digital film opens with a now-familiar ritual, Sanon tying a rakhi to her brother, before the celebration extends outward to include their pet as well. The campaign carried the tagline "Furever Sibling – The Pawfect Bond, Crafted in Silver," explicitly framing pets as a new category of sibling deserving of the same festival recognition.

Unlike the previous year's single cameo appearance, this time GIVA backed the idea with an actual product range. The new Pet Collection features personalised, pure silver pet tag charms and accessories designed specifically for pet owners, sitting alongside the brand's existing Raksha Bandhan offerings, sterling silver rakhis, personalised jewellery, everyday silver pieces, gold jewellery, and lab-grown diamond products. Resha Jain, Chief Brand Officer at GIVA, explained the thinking behind the move, describing jewellery as more than an accessory, a symbol of the relationships that shape people's lives, and pointing to how, for many people today, the idea of siblinghood has genuinely come to include the pets who feel like an inseparable part of the family.

A Real Business Opportunity Behind the Sentiment

This wasn't purely an emotional bet either. According to estimates from Wazir Advisors, India's pet-care market was valued at roughly Rs 10,300 crore in 2025, and is projected to grow to somewhere between Rs 25,000 crore and Rs 26,000 crore by 2030. Pet accessories currently make up a relatively small slice of that market, which is exactly what makes a festival tie-in like this attractive, it offers brands a genuine incremental occasion to sell into a category that's still under-tapped, rather than competing purely on sentiment alone.

When a Campaign Gets Attention for the Wrong Reasons

Not everything about the campaign's reception went to plan. The Kriti Sanon film drew visible public criticism, and notably, much of the conversation ended up centred on her outfit rather than the jewellery or the pet storyline. Some viewers objected to her styling as inappropriate for a Raksha Bandhan setting, with the criticism becoming public and vocal enough that actor Kangana Ranaut weighed in on the debate. Separately, other viewers specifically questioned the choice to include a dog within the rakhi ritual itself, arguing it diluted a tradition rooted in human sibling bonds. At the same time, plenty of other viewers defended the idea, pointing out that pets can genuinely occupy an emotional role in modern households similar to that of a sibling. The result was a campaign that generated enormous online conversation, though a meaningful share of it had little to do with the actual product GIVA was trying to sell.

Five Lessons Every Marketer Should Take From This Campaign

1. A single emotional beat can be tested before it becomes a full product line. GIVA didn't invent the "pet as sibling" idea overnight, it tested the concept as a small moment within a larger campaign a year earlier, then scaled it into a dedicated collection once the sentiment proved resonant.

2. Cultural shifts create real commercial openings, not just nice stories. The decision to build a Pet Collection wasn't just emotionally appealing, it mapped directly onto a fast-growing, still under-served pet-care market, giving the sentiment a genuine business rationale behind it.

3. Controversy doesn't always serve the product. Despite generating massive visibility, much of the conversation around the campaign focused on wardrobe criticism rather than the jewellery itself, a reminder that attention and message retention aren't automatically the same thing.

4. Reinterpreting a tradition invites both applause and backlash, and brands should expect both. Extending a culturally rooted ritual like Raksha Bandhan to include pets resonated with many modern pet owners, but also triggered real pushback from those who felt the tradition was being diluted, a risk inherent to any campaign that reworks something culturally sacred.

5. A well-known face doesn't guarantee the product stays the story. With a high-profile ambassador and a styling choice that became a talking point of its own, the campaign shows how easily a celebrity-led film can end up being remembered for the celebrity, not the collection she was meant to introduce.

A Product Line Born From a Feeling, Tested in Public

GIVA's Furever Sibling campaign captures something genuinely true about how Indian households are changing, more people now consider their pets family, not accessories to it. Whether the campaign ultimately sells more silver pet tags or simply more opinions about a blouse is still playing out in real time, but the underlying insight, that festivals can expand to include the relationships people actually live, rather than only the ones tradition originally scripted, is one other brands are likely to keep testing for years to come.