Cleartrip has a message for food delivery brands this Big Billion Days: if its travel deals are good enough, their office lunch business might be in trouble.
The travel platform’s newspaper ads take a playful swipe at the everyday relationship between office workers and food delivery services, imagining what happens when irresistible holiday deals leave workplaces nearly empty. Instead of simply advertising discounts and destinations, Cleartrip turns the potential fallout into the joke.
One of the ads, featured in The Economic Times, addresses the people who deliver three biryanis every second. “We’re sorry if only three people show up to your office next week,” it reads. The copy follows with another cheeky line: “You of all people should know, when the deals are irresistible, who wouldn’t go on a trip?”
The reference to biryani deliveries points towards the food delivery brands that have become a familiar part of office life. The ad’s red visual treatment also brings Zomato to mind, while its counterpart in Delhi Times uses an orange background that evokes Swiggy’s signature colour palette.
The second ad addresses the “folks who don’t need to be named”, predicting that their entire office will soon be empty. It then clears the chief of staff of any blame, adding: “It’s ours.”
The joke is that Cleartrip, through its Big Billion Days travel deals, is the reason employees might be away from their desks leaving fewer people around to order lunch.
The campaign works on two levels. On the surface, it taps into a familiar office fantasy: dropping everything and heading off on a holiday when the right deal comes along. Underneath, it uses that scenario to poke fun at food delivery brands whose services are woven into the working-day routine.
The colour choices and biryani reference make the ads feel like more than generic travel promotions. They suggest a playful nod to Zomato and Swiggy without needing to name either brand outright. The result is a form of brand banter in which Cleartrip gets to promote its own sale by imagining the inconvenience it could cause another category.
That makes the creative more interesting than a conventional Big Billion Days ad. Rather than listing destinations or shouting about discounts, Cleartrip dramatises the appeal of its offers through the people and businesses that might feel their effects.
The Economic Times ad builds its humour around biryani deliveries, while the Delhi Times version turns an empty office into the punchline. Together, they take the same idea into two familiar settings: the office lunch break and the workplace itself.
Cleartrip has effectively made the absence of customers part of its sales pitch. If employees are tempted enough to book a trip, the office might be quieter, and the food delivery apps might have fewer lunch orders to fulfil.
It is a cheeky way to sell a travel sale: not by showing everyone where they could go, but by imagining the people and routines they might leave behind.
