Nestle India withdrew KitKat packs after its Pattachitra art wrapper upset devotees

KitKat's long-running travel break campaign celebrates local cultures with collectible pack designs; the Odisha edition drew on Pattachitra, the cloth-based scroll painting known for vivid mythological imagery.

Put Odisha's Pattachitra scroll art on collectible KitKat wrappers — until one design carried Lord Jagannath too far for devotees.

The packs featured images of Lord Jagannath and Mata Subhadra rendered in Pattachitra style. After social media criticism surfaced in January 2022, Nestle India said the packs had already been withdrawn from the market the previous year as a pre-emptive action, and expressed regret for any hurt sentiment.

The packs disappeared from the market before the backlash fully crested — Nestle India stated in January 2022 they were 'already withdrawn last year'. The company said consumers had liked collecting the designs; the material reports no sales figures.

Nestle India's KitKat travel break campaign, running for several years, celebrated local destinations with collectible pack designs. The Odisha edition put Pattachitra — the state's traditional cloth-based scroll painting, identifiable by vivid mythological imagery — on the wrapper, with the stated aim of encouraging people to learn about the art and its artisans.

One design featured images of Lord Jagannath and Mata Subhadra. In January 2022, social media users posted pictures of the packs and alleged that using the deity's image on a chocolate wrapper hurt religious sentiments, drawing criticism to the brand.

Nestle India responded that the packs had already been withdrawn from the market the previous year 'as a pre-emptive' action, and expressed regret, saying it understood the sensitivity of the matter. A spokesperson defended the program's intent — celebrating local culture and artisans, with past campaigns showing consumers like collecting the designs — but the Jagannath pack did not return.

The misstep sits in a grey zone brands keep entering: regional art celebrations are good marketing until the art's subject is worshipped.

The withdrawal-before-the-storm sequence shows the company had sensed the risk in 2021, a year before the criticism resurfaced publicly.

It is a clean case of design-by-award versus design-for-devotion: the same vivid imagery that made the pack collectible made it offensive.

Sacred art on packaging is a collector's item until it is a provocation: regional design collaborations need a line between celebrating a culture's art and reproducing its gods on a snack.

Nestle India's January 20, 2022 statement closed the episode: packs withdrawn, regret expressed, the wider travel break collectible campaign continuing without the Jagannath design. The material records no further consequences.