Piyush Pandey and the art of connecting with India’s masses
In a casual banter at an industry event in 2008, this writer asked a bunch of young executives from India’s advertising industry if they felt overwhelmed in the presence of creative legends from all over the world at an international event they had just returned from. One of them pointed at Piyush Pandey and said: “Mere paas baap hai (referring to Pandey as the ‘father of Indian advertising’). Why should I be afraid?”
A reference to the iconic dialogue—“Mere paas ma hai”—from the Hindi film Deewar, this elicited a laughter in the group. Pandey, who was part of the conversation, wasn’t impressed. “Ye to udhaar ka hai…kuch original hona chahiye (this is borrowed; it’s got to be something original),” he said.
Pandey, who passed away at the age of 70 on 24 October, was an original raconteur. That he borrowed extensively from India’s rich and diverse cultural landscape in his storytelling wasn’t an irony but a flair that came from a rootedness largely missing in the industry.
Pandey had an unmistakable talent to pick symbols, colours, expressions, ambience, and characters that could resonate with a brand’s target audience. This made him stand out in an industry that couldn’t shed the influence of the world the phenomenon of mass advertising came from.
An anecdote from the corridors of Ogilvy India, the ad agency where Pandey began his career in 1982, reflects this.
It is said that in 1992 Asian Paints wanted a festive season campaign pegged to the idea of “Celebrate with Asian Paints”. Pandey argued that celebrations may be a universal phenomenon, but their expression holds distinctive cultural nuances that are crucial for building a connection with a brand’s target consumers.
He reframed the campaign idea as “Har khushi mein rang laaye” (translated loosely as: ‘Adds colour to every happy occasion’). The tagline was as much about colour—or paints—as it was about celebrations, and in a language that struck an immediate chord with Asian Paints’s target consumers.
Pandey followed that with “Har ghar kuch kehta hai” (Every house tells a story)—a campaign designed to articulate Asian Paints’s positioning that paints were about a homeowner’s personality.
Piyush Pandey’s creative genius
In hindsight, I should have asked Pandey if India’s changing consumption culture post liberalization in the early 1990s, and the advent of cable and satellite television, allowed brands to reach out to the masses like never before. And if that may have played a role in boosting the reach and popularity of his work?
Be that as it may, none of this takes away from Pandey’s creative genius. There are taglines aplenty spanning his career that transcend the commercial storytelling to cultural folklore.
The “Dum laga ke haisa” (Give it all you’ve got) and “Todo nahin, jodo” (Don’t break, unite) slogans for Fevicol helped the adhesive brand rise to national consciousness.
The “Kuch khaas hai” (There’s something special) campaign for Cadbury Dairy Milk helped reposition the chocolate brand as a universal celebratory treat, moving away from the notion that chocolates were meant only for children.
Fevikwik’s hilarious unbreakable egg advertisement that exaggerated brand attributes yet was endearing, and Vodafone’s Zoozoo and pug campaigns, are among many campaigns that won Pandey several accolades in India as well as globally.
The rise of Indian advertising
Under Pandey’s stewardship, Ogilvy India became the most-awarded creative agency not only in India but also globally. Pandey rose from being a copy writer at Ogilvy India to national creative director, eventually becoming Ogilvy’s executive chairman and chief creative officer worldwide.
Pandey did Ogilvy, India’s advertising industry, and India proud by becoming the first Asian jury president at Cannes Lion in 2004. In 2018, he became the first Asian to receive the famed Lion of St. Mark at Cannes, a recognition befitting his creative journey.
The government of India bestowed the Padma Shri—the country’s fourth-highest civilian award, given for distinguished service in any field—on Pandey in 2016, acknowledging his profound contribution to the country’s cultural as well as commercial legacy.
Acknowledging my limitation in coming up with a tagline in his memory that he would appreciate, I again say: Piyush Pandey was truly the “Baap of Indian advertising and creative storytelling”.
Archna Shukla is a former national corporate editor of Mint.
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