Creative people tend to be wary of clients, but not Piyush, he won them over
Illustration/Uday Mohite
And so our beloved Piyush Pandey has passed away. If a Ranji trophy career had materialised for him, would cricket have gained and “the communication business” have lost. I’d have to say, modern Indian advertising can be divided into the pre-Piyush and post-Piyush periods. Every business has a poster boy, and Piyush was ours.
I’ve always wondered why we had only one titan in our business. Was it the times we live in, did he shape Indian advertising so acutely that we only have place for one?
Piyush Pandey didn’t invent Indian advertising — that would be a great disservice, to the giants who walked the ad universe before him — My dad, my two uncles, Kersey Katrak and Gerson daCunha, Alyque Padamsee, Mohammed Khan, Chris Rozario, Frank Simoes etc.
But he did give Indian advertising a grammar that was ours, he broke it down, allowed the heartland of India to breathe its “everyday speak” into our business. He simplified the language. He created aesthetic insights.
His creative outlook was the “turning point” — he created an environment for excellence.
In the late 80s/early 90s, we had two kinds of advertising agencies
1. The multinationals, strategy led, “suits” dominated.
2. The boutiques/creative shops.
Ogilvy & Mather belonged to the former category.
I remember the day, Ogilvy & Mather decided they needed a change of image.
Kersey Katrak’s MCM had spawned boutiques/creative shops, Arun Nandafounded Rediffusion, Ravi Gupta began Trikaya — these were start ups and the two mavericks determined the kind of clients they wanted and therefore would drive the kind of creative work they produced.
O&M had a multinational backstory, a backstory by and large guided by “suits” — Piyush was already in O&M, he’d written the “mile sur” song. It’s a hard one to turn a creative workspace, one that’s used to functional advertising into a “flash gordon”one. It was then that Ranjan Kapur took over the reigns, as CEO, together Piyush and he turned the Titanic within a year, a creaky ‘safe’ orgnisation became a hotshop.
Clients headed to Apeejay House, Churchgate, in droves. Piyush greatest gift, was his rapport with clients. And the respect he gained from them.Clients loved him, they felt their brands were in safe hands. Creative people tend to be wary of clients, but not Piyush, he won them over.
Piyush embraced clients, he empathized with them. The dream of all advertising creative people is to get the trust of your client so he “buys” your work, work that will stand out in the clutter, work that the client will put bucks behind
With if ever there was an oxymoron, Piyush Panday gave his clients risky responsible work — Piyush didn’t push for awards. He knew they would come if the work had an aethetically powerful insight. That the brand would have a benefit not produced in the factory, the power of a proposition translating into poetry. For Asian Paints, his “har ghar kuch kehta hai” didn’t just sell a better paint, the promise was how it would create the “aura of your home”.
Unlike his predecessors, Piyush understood film. He believed in the overall impact of a piece of communication – and so his greatest campaign was born, for Fevicol. For me “the Fevicol bus ad” is still the greatest TV advert to emerge from India — to take such a low interest product as a sticky glue, and build it into such a memorable campaign is genius.
He was a Mad Man… not a Madison Avenue man, but a genuine mad man, all the same, he thought out of the box, more than most.
If something were to be placed at his feet, it would be the art of telling stories, identifiable Indian stories with humour, that would be his legacy.
And as Piyush passes into the ether, I wonder about our business, the ad business, the story telling business, the crafting of sentiment, the humour of the heartland,
In his world, AI would stand for “Amazing Insight”.
Rest well, Piyush Pandey, our jodi with you, will forever be strong.
Rahul daCunha is an adman, theatre director/playwright, filmmaker and traveller. Reach him at rahul.dacunha@mid-day.com
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
