Wakefit has rolled out a campaign for World Sleep Day, which falls on 13 March, with an aim to tap into a universal childhood memory.

It aims to celebrate the timeless bedtime warnings that once kept households disciplined and invites people across the country to share the most iconic 'maa dhamkis' (mother's threats) they grew up hearing.

Conceptualised by The New Thing, the campaign comprises an ad film.

The film showcases a mother played by content creator Astuti Anand who enters a room and demands that everyone sleep. It then pans to content creator and comedian Md Anas, who shares that for over a decade, Wakefit has been trying to get people to sleep through various ways.

The film opens with clips from the brand’s previous campaigns and acknowledges its long-running attempt to get people to sleep earlier. This time, instead of focusing on mattresses, the campaign leans into a more relatable cultural trope: maa ki dhamki (a mother’s threats). Through the concept of a “Dhamki Squad,” the film features mothers auditioning by delivering classic lines packed with emotional blackmail, irritation, and authority. The film then invites viewers to submit their own videos to join the squad, with a chance to win INR 50,000. The film closes with the line: “So ja, warna mummy aa jayegi" (go to sleep or your mom will appear), and Anand is still going hard at her audition.

What we think about it: Leans heavily into exaggerated humour, which makes it entertaining and culturally relatable, and the user participation angle is a smart way to drive engagement around World Sleep Day. That said, offering a cash reward feels slightly disconnected from the brand’s core offering; product giveaways like mattresses or sleep-related discounts could have reinforced Wakefit’s sleep positioning more effectively.

Chaitanya Ramalingegowda, co-founder and director, Wakefit, said, “This World Sleep Day marks a decade of Wakefit’s commitment to helping India sleep better, not just through our sleep and home solutions, but also by sparking meaningful conversations around sleep. Over the years, we’ve used humour and culture to highlight the importance of rest, from showcasing the effects of sleep deprivation through our #Gaddagiri series, to cheekily responding to a global streaming giant’s claim that ‘sleep is our biggest competitor’. We’ve even paid interns to sleep through four seasons of the Wakefit Sleep Internship Program. But despite everything we’ve tried, we realised that as adults, the freedom to control our own bedtimes is often what gets in the way of sleep discipline. So this time we're finally resorting to the one radical sleep authority that has never failed - Indian mothers and their terrifying bedtime dhamkis.”

Anand Menon, Nikhil Unni and Simran Kumar, creators, The New Thing, added, “Most of India has gotten threatened into bed by their mothers at some point. It cuts across language, city, and generations. At a time when proper sleep cycles feel like a distant memory, we saw an opportunity for Wakefit to revisit those humorously relatable, guilt-inducing, sometimes savage bedtime roasts. And remind people about the sleep discipline that many of us have quietly lost as adults."