Remember the Chal Meri Luna campaign of the 1980s? Or the Mile Sur Mera Tumhara which brought the who’s who of Indian classical music from all corners together to sing those eternal lines? Or Dam Laga ke....Haisha of the Fevicol campaign which is running successfully for the past 19 years? Or numerous other ads which are made in the typical Indian idiom, touching the hearts of the people and earning national as well as internatinal prizes and awards?
Meet Piyush Pandey, the man behind all those lines and campaigns, who presides over one of the leading ad agencys— O&M— as its executive chairman and national creative director for South Asia.
Puffing his cigarrate, Pandey recalled his childhood days when he would visit stores in Jaipur and watch those spring horses. The joyful kids would straddle on the spring horses and yank them shouting Chal mere ghode....
When Pandey came to O&M and got an opportunity to design an ad for Luna, he remembered those kids and sprang from it the lines of Chal meri Luna, which caught the imagination of the people.
That was his first major break, followed by Mile Sur Mera Tumhara of 1987. “I could not believe my lines would be sung by such great luminaries as Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle and others,” he recalls.
Curiously, Pandey started as a cricketer, playing for Rajasthan in Ranji Trophy matches, before he joined a Kolkata-based tea company TM&MC, as a tea-taster. “I got bored in three years and was looking for exciting avenues, when some of my friends in the advertising industry brought me to this field.”
Pandey joined O&M as an accounts executive trainee in 1982. The then creative head of the company Suresh Malik gave him the opportunity to write for a few ads and later brought him to the creative department. “Since then, I have been enjoying this work, without getting bored so far.”
But what about his journey from cricket to tea-tasting, to accounts, to advertising? “I don’t plan, I don’t believe in planning life, I believe in doing things in my own ways, which I can enjoy,” he says.
The ad industry credits him with curing the colonial hangover in advertising, which was in vogue till he introduced the Indian idiom, successfully. That made world to listen to him and shower him with praise and awards.
In September 2006, he was appointed on the Ogilvy Worldwide Board. In October, he made TIME magazine’s list of ‘People to Watch in International Business’. He was also the first Asian to be the president of the jury at the Cannes International Advertising Festival (in 2004), He was also made the judge for the second time at the British D&AD Global Awards 2007. Incidently, Pandey considers the British ad industry to be the best in the world.
Among Pandey’s many famous ads with iconic slogans are Kutch khaas hai ham sabhi mein (Cadburys), and Har ghar kuch kehta hai (Asian Paints). “The Indian ads were connecting to the people,” he said. That won him over 600 awards so far. His finest moment, though, was the ad for the Cancer Patients Association that won gold at Cannes in 2002. It showed the bad effects of passive smoking. Ironically, Pandey himself is a chain smoker.
Like everybody, small or big, Pandey had had his share of errors and mistakes. “Yes, in the initial years, I did commit huge mistakes, but they were not of the type to rob the company of the campaign. Every man commits mistakes, and learns. If anybody says that he doesn’t commit mistake and tries to give a larger than life image, then it is false.”
What about the claims (many-a-time fantastic) made in ads, about fairness and turning hair black? Does he own responsibility for such claims? He has his own logic. “Most people are not stupid, they are not dumb, you can fool them once but not twice.”
About Fair & Lovely, for example, he said technically the ad campaign is correct, the lotion has all the componets advertised. “As far as the moral question of whether one should look fair or not, I am not concerned about it.”
Similarly about obscenity. “Who is to decide what is obscene and what is not?” He recalled a VIP Frenchie campaign on underwear, which were shown flying in the air. The moral keepers took objection, to which he said, “This time I am showing men with underwear, next time I will show only men, no underwear,” he laughed. Nevertheless, the campaign was banned.
His company does not make political ads as a policy, although he has been approached by many politicians and parties for this. With liberalisation, he said there are massive opportunities for the ad industry in India, which spends less than what Indonesia spends on ads.
Pandey has seven sisters and a brother and he makes sure he has enough time for his family. “It is a myth that marriages in the creative industry are turbulent. It has nothing to do with the profession— it depends on the person, on how you give time to your family. If not, half of the merchant navy would have been divorced by now.”
The ad guru gives credit for his achievements to his parents, who “invested in culture” and educated their children. “Culture was always around me even while I was playing cricket. It has helped me to achieve big success,” he says.
