“Aesi chai ki dushman ko bhi dost banaye (Such a tea that makes even enemy a friend),” reads the poster written in Urdu

The tea seller’s creative marketing strategy is winning hearts online.

An elderly Karachi tea seller tried to give his business a boost by using a picture of IAF pilot Abhinandan Varthaman’s in a banner on his stall. The banner also had a line which said that tea can bring people together, and even turn foes into friends.

The tea seller’s creative marketing strategy is winning hearts online

“Aisi chai ki dushman ko bhi dost banaye (Such a tea that makes even an enemy a friend),” the poster written in Urdu says.

The image used by the Pakistani tea seller garnered a lot of attention online, and the photo went viral.

One of the videos that were released of Indian Air Force pilot while he was in captivity, featured him talking about the tea that he had been served. India asked YouTube to pull down the videos of the pilot, who was captured after his MiG-21 Bison was shot down when the Indian Air Force repulsed Pakistani aircraft that violated Indian air space.

Wing Commander Varthaman was released, and returned to India through the Wagah-Attari border two days after his capture. Since then his image has inspired fan art, memes, and poems online. The Election Commission also asked Facebook to remove two political posters with the Wing Commander’s photograph and asked political parties to stop making references to the armed forces in their campaigns.