Five iconic ad campaigns that scripted the 'era of change' in India

One look at the cover of ad veteran Ambi Parameswarans new book Nawab Nudes Noodles and a sense of nostalgia creeps in A doodle of the now discontinued Gold Spot soft drink flashes alongside the antibacterial health soap mdash Lifebuoy Somewhere in this meacutelange of illustrations there is also the Amul girl Dalda Vanaspati and the VIP chaddibanyan brand mdash all staples on television and print hoardings for decadesIn Nawab Nudes Noodles Ambi Parameswaran writes of how India changed through 50 years of advertisingThere is no denying that this book is going to take you back in time to when advertisements were watched with great relish But Parameswarans Nawab Nudes Noodles is more than that The book tells us how India changed through 50 years of advertising ldquoIndia has been a country in transition for the last few decadesrdquo says the writer ldquoIn some cases advertising catalysed the change and in some cases advertisers have reflected that changerdquo adds Parameswaran who spent a large part of his 35year marketing sales and advertising career in helping build FCB Ulka into one of Indias biggest ad agencies While the book examines over 300 different ads that helped ldquoscript this changerdquo we shortlisted five iconic ads and asked Parameswaran to give us the back story Heres what he had to say1 Emergence of the new Indian woman Surfrsquos Lalitaji ad of 1984The ad was created for Surf to show that the product was a far more sensible purchase when compared to other washing powder brands To promote the brand Hindustan Unilever Ltd introduced Lalitaji who not only became the embodiment of the brand but also became a role model for the new Indian woman This was probably one of the earliest ads where a middleclass woman was interacting with the crowds in the street and talking back to the camera She was portrayed as someone who was no longer hiding behind her husband and could face the society and engage in debate The story is that the ad almost did not run despite being so popular because Lalitaji came across as being too aggressive HUL had to soften the image of Lalitaji2 Chocolate for grownups Cadbury Dairy Milks Real Taste of Life ad of 1994This ad by Ogilvy amp Mather suddenly made chocolateeating lsquocoolrsquo for adults Until then chocolates were usually marketed for kids But in this ad you have a woman who bites into a piece of chocolate while watching a game of cricket gets a sugar rush goes berserk runs into the field and breaks into a dance Another social commentary around this film was that the woman doesnrsquot behave like a stiff upper class elite instead she swings around like a child Today itrsquos normal to see women dance on the cricket field thanks to IPL In a way it was a precursor to what was to happen to the sport3 Milk is the new cola Amul Operation Floods Doodh ad of 1995This is the time when the Cola wars Pepsi Versus Coca Cola had just begun Research showed that children across India were saying no to milk and instead sipping on cola morning evening and night There was an urgent need for a more fun depiction of milk Thats when FCB Ulka stepped in The interesting thing about the ad was that it used a Reggae tune and it was probably the first ad film to use Hindi and English in equal measure in its jingle In the end it served its purpose of getting children to sing and dance to the song of milk Also milk no longer seemed boring4 No job dont fear Naukricoms Hari Sadu ad of 2006This ad changed the way Indians thought about jobs For many years Indians had this belief that the boss is God and that since getting a job is difficult one should stick it out But the Naukricom ad started addressing a new audience and highlighted that any job was not okay and that you should take a job that you enjoy In the ad the employee actually spells out his bossrsquo name as lsquoHitler Arrogant Rascal Idiotrsquo Hari It propagated the thought that people donrsquot quit jobs but they quit their bosses The ad was a remarkable success story5 The nude controversy Tuff Shoe ad of 1995There are some ads that can go the wrong way and one such example was the Tuff shoe ad where supermodels Milind Soman and Madhu Sapre posed nude along with a python for a print advertisement The ad came out at time when India was becoming more prudish But to be honest had the ad come out today it would suffer the same fate This ad was banned soon after its release and the models were dragged to court The case went on for over 20 years A lot of people felt that nudity had nothing to do with shoes hence the opposition Advertisement has to find a balance between grabbing peoplersquos attention and not upsetting sentiments