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New Delhi: Has marketing become so subtle that it’s hard to tell whether a public figure is part of a campaign or whether a campaign quietly absorbs a public figure?
The recent activity of AAP MP Raghav Chadha for Blinkit delivery people offers a telling case study in how political advocacy, corporate crisis management, and modern brand storytelling can blur into one another, often without clear disclosure.
Between December 2025 and January 2026, India’s quick-commerce sector found itself under intense scrutiny after gig and platform workers staged a one-day strike demanding better pay, safer working conditions, and protection against arbitrary account deactivation.
What began as an operational disruption soon escalated into a national conversation on the ethics of 10-minute delivery models and the rights of gig workers.
Following the December 31 strike, the issue gained traction across social media.
On January 3, Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal appeared on Raj Shamani’s podcast, where he outlined the company’s stance on gig workers. The remarks triggered eye-rolls online, with several viewers calling his approach dismissive of the very workforce driving the platform’s growth.
From insurance and accident cover to family support, social media was flooded with demands for stronger protections and clearer accountability for delivery partners.
On January 13, after intervention from the Union Labour Ministry, quick-commerce platforms announced they would discontinue 10-minute delivery timelines, a significant policy reversal.
Six days later, on January 19, Chadha appeared publicly alongside Blinkit delivery workers. According to a Boomlet crisis report tracking the Zomato–Blinkit episode, Chadha’s involvement marked the “political amplification” phase of the crisis.
AAP MP Chadha’s intervention took the Zomato–Blinkit gig workers’ strike beyond a company-level controversy and turned it into a national policy debate in Parliament.
This wasn’t a one-off moment for Chadha. Weeks before the controversy, on December 6, he had already raised the issue of gig workers in Parliament, becoming the first MP to do so.
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By raising issues around fair pay, social security, and the safety risks linked to 10-minute delivery promises, his remarks are described as legitimising worker demands and shifting the narrative from operational grievances to systemic reform in India’s gig economy.
His role is positioned as political amplification that moved the focus from wage disputes and strike visuals to broader questions of labour rights, platform accountability, and policy failure.
Where the case gets complicated is not Chadha’s advocacy itself, but the optics of how it played out.
According to industry sources, the sequence of events was not coincidental. Insiders claim Chadha’s decision to publicly experience the life of a gig worker was encouraged by senior leadership at the company, as part of a broader narrative strategy to humanise the platform amid mounting criticism.
It’s no surprise because Chadha had already emerged as a key voice on this issue; he’s been among the few MPs repeatedly speaking up for gig workers and pushing their demands into the spotlight.
While there is no public evidence of collaboration, multiple stakeholders describe the move as a carefully orchestrated reputational play, positioned as public interest activism, but aligned with corporate crisis management goals.
This is where modern marketing’s “invisible hand” becomes relevant. Crisis communication today rarely looks like advertising. It looks like empathy. It looks like a listening tour. It looks like public figures are sharing lived experiences. The result is a form of narrative soft power, shaping how the story is told without appearing to shape it at all.
However, the contrast with Rahul Gandhi’s approach is striking. When Gandhi engaged with gig workers, he hosted a roundtable that included delivery partners from multiple platforms: Zepto, Zomato, Dunzo, and Swiggy. His YouTube content avoided highlighting any single brand in the title or thumbnail. The focus remained on workers, not companies.
Chadha’s engagement, however, was Blinkit-specific. The branding was prominent, from the video thumbnail to the title, making the association explicit and platform-centric. Whether intentional or incidental, this created a brand halo effect for Blinkit at a moment when the company was under regulatory and reputational pressure.
The strategic effect on Zomato’s crisis narrative was clear. The storyline moved from “strike and exploitation” to “policy and leadership discourse.” Worker demands were legitimised at the highest political level, while the platform benefited from being seen as part of a larger systemic debate rather than a standalone offender.
This is the new frontier of influence marketing, not product placements, but narrative placements. Not brand ambassadors, but issue amplifiers. The risk is not that public figures engage with labour issues; they should. The risk is opacity. When political advocacy intersects with corporate reputation management, the public deserves clarity on where activism ends and strategic storytelling begins.
BestMediaInfo reached out to Zomato to clarify the nature of any association between Raghav Chadha and Blinkit. At the time of publishing, there has been no response.
Until there is transparency, the episode leaves the industry with an uncomfortable question: has marketing become so subtle that we no longer recognise it when it wears the costume of conscience?