In a candid interview, maverick ad guru Piyush Pandey tells Rinku Ghosh about his memoir Pandeymonium, Narendra Modi’s Prime Ministerial election campaign, his trust in the new generation, and ‘delighting people’
Piyush Pandey knows his job. He is a visionary who has changed fortunes of companies and made them a popular brand. A Cadbury chocolate became sweeter when he melted emotions into it. A luna advertisement became a part of our lives by simply adding a Hindi twist. And Vodafone’s pug and Zoozoos showed there is more to life than just words. The maverick ad guru has now come up with his memoir Pandeymonium, detailing his innocence and experience.
As a self-proclaimed luddite, did you write this book in long handIJ
A lot of it has been in long hand, much of it in baritone and yet a bulk of it corrected by me. I personally don’t use technology but people in my office handle things better than me.
Why did you feel the need to put your advertising years together, considering you are fairly interactive most of the timeIJ
More than me, it is my friends who like to push me into sharing something with people. That’s how the book came about. But I was clear that I would not pen down something in the textbook format. Hence a memoir. The curator of the book, Anant Rangaswami, has known me for over a decade and, therefore, would ask me questions about storyboards and campaigns that I did not even remember. We kept jogging memory. Also a lot of youngsters told me that they had joined the industry because they liked my work. Therefore Anant and other friends felt that the story must be shared of where I came and learnt from, what advertising taught me and how it came handy in life. Anant literally walked the memory lane with me.
You have worked through the transitional phases of India — liberalisation, post-liberalisation, digitisation. What is your understanding of young India as you have seen it evolveIJ
My understanding of young India is 90 per cent positive. It is confident and fearless; not scared of attempting new things. During my days, there were only three or four important professions. Now everybody is converting their passion into a successful career too. The remaining 10 per cent that I am worried about are young people who keep shifting their focus. It’s a concern, maybe I am wrong. But I hope that the kind of opportunities there are today do not confuse young India. Find your passion and then stick to it. You have to be a champion in that. You may be a better champion if you keep pursuing the same passion and not keep changing your mind every day.
You have grown up with good old world value systems. How are they applicable nowIJ
The basic practice system will always be applicable, that you’re born and nurtured by a family. Therefore, you have a responsibility towards the family for what they gave you. I don’t think the young generation is disrespectful. That is part of our Indian culture that there will always be a little bit of bonding. It doesn’t have to be expressed the way it was expressed 60 years ago. But it won’t go away either. Besides, I see young people more socially conscious and cause-oriented than us. They are more ready to give back.
In this scenario, where there is so much exposure to various media, how much does communication as a strategy need to changeIJ
Overload of information does not mean knowledge. A human being is different from any other being because he has emotions. It is expressed best when you meet people face-to-face. Information is beautiful. To make it meaningful, you need to balance between meeting, knowing and respecting people, being sensitive towards them.
I do not think that the art of processing is really affected by a glut of images. Availability of a multiplicity of media is a big opportunity. The onus is on you and me to sift and convert it into something beautiful, otherwise this information is available to everybody. Among this “everybody,” some will look at a campaign and say, “Ah, that made my day.” Everything is available to you. You just need to use your head and use it in a fashion so that you can convert it into a message that clicks and stirs people to stop and think.
Was it more challenging when you were working post-2000, considering India became more aspirationalIJ Have you changed your style of thinkingIJ
Here I will resort to a cricketing analogy as that game defines my life and choices. You play the game as per the condition of the wicket. If you play in India, the ball spins as the wicket is slow; if you play in England, the ball swings and comes a little higher. In Australia, the wickets are harder and the bounce is more. You have to run to play on every wicket at the end of the day. But all this won’t change the answer to the question, did you play a beautiful game and did you winIJ We have to learn how to play on different wickets. learn to play the game as it evolves. And the game for me has changed from the 80s to today. I have to live with it.
If you look at cricket again, there were days when not more than two fielders were allowed in the outfield. Today, in 20-20 cricket, there are many players located in the outfield. If you don’t adapt, you will be outdated and become irrelevant. Has the bat and ball changed dramaticallyIJ No. Has the scoring pattern changed dramaticallyIJ No. But the speed of the game has changed. What used to be a challenge in the 80s was a relevant challenge of that era. Now, the challenges are different.
When you talk about the power of words, you have mastered the art of hitting the message home with a smattering of very understandable, pan-India Hindi. Now in this digital world, where a “see” is a “C” and abbreviations reduce everything to gibberish, how have you broken the language barrierIJ
It was way back in 1987 when I wrote the line, ‘Chal meri luna’. If you ask me, I can make an emoji out of it today. Brevity and content are not against each other. If it is brief but delightful, then I see nothing wrong with it. Ideas will always prevail in the business and that’s what we need to remember. Whatever communication is created for whatever medium, an idea has to be at the core. Otherwise, in this day and age, buyers have allowed the four-minute-38-second Fortune cooking oil ad to go on air. On prime time no less. All because it shows a concerned grandmother carrying home-cooked daal for her injured grandson in hospital, hoping the homely touch will rejuvenate him as it does. An idea can bend rules.
There were days when you could hit the road, but today what is your input mechanism to absorb every little change, factor in every nuanceIJ
I may not have the luxury of time but I continue to be inquisitive. I love talking to liftmen, taxi drivers and common people I come across. I think if there was an election, and the entire electorate comprised liftmen, I would win hands down. But you can’t be omnipresent. Once a month you go to a barber and chat with him. I grab whatever opportunities I get to interact with ordinary men and women, but my hunger about getting those opportunities should never die.
Do you think that over time you have made Hindi part of the popular lexiconIJ You have broken the English barrier and brought it closer to people’s hearts. Now local flavour is a template of advertising...
Yes, a lot of people have joined the bandwagon, which is nice. It’s not just about Hindi, it’s about India. Even in the early 90s, when I was working in Kolkata for Durga Puja for Asian Paints or for Pongal in Chennai or Onam in Kerala, I used to find a local partner who knew the regional nuances far better. Hindi happens to be my first language, which doesn’t mean that Bengali is any less important to me. It’s a different matter that I don’t know Bengali. I will surround myself with people who have equal passion for this language as I have for Hindi. I believe in domestic multiculturalism and osmosis. I think what has happened and which is nice is that we are finally talking to our people and respecting them.
Do you think now it’s overdone because everybody follows youIJ Is there a samenessIJ
When it is a question of sameness, you are bound to fail unless you are doing better. If each one writes the same kind of stuff and 15 of those make it to one TV show, the winner will again be the person who’s got the pulse and not the style. Remember, the pulse should always be of the people that you are trying to talk to.
Is that why you did the Zoozoo adIJ You were not directly part of it, but as an organisation was there a conscious attempt to dump language and work on something which was more universalIJ
There’s a constant search within me to answer a basic question. How can I delight and refresh the kind of work we doIJ Zoozoos came out of a very simple understanding of the team at Vodafone and at Ogilvy. If we were going to run the same ad for 15 matches, wouldn’t people get boredIJ Suppose we did one for each match, which was a radical statement to make, would a client say, “let’s do itIJ”
But Vodafone loved the idea. Then there was the challenge for Rajiv Rao and his creative team to think of 40-plus scripts and beat the familiarity of the hitherto icon of a pug. Prakash Varma created a visual language through animation for the “thing”, so words didn’t matter. The shooting was on-site in South Africa, where the team had to get petite girls to slip into the costumes so that the Zoozoos looked small. Zoozoos ended up being magical. Today, I’m very proud that it is in the DNA of Ogilvy to constantly try to do things with a fresh passion, even in tested and secure territory.
Every film that you see visually tells you a story and what could be better than a Zoozoo in a country which speaks so many languages. You could run the same piece of work with some gibberish happening and everyone would love it.
There’s also an overdose of visual storytelling by amateurs on social platforms. How challenging is it, therefore, to tell a story within the visual format from an advertiser’s point of viewIJ
I think if RK laxman has done it for 50 years, we can do it for 50 more (laughs). laxman’s work will never die.
You have worked with celebrities, singling out Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan as dedicated and involved professionals in their campaigns. What is your comfort zone, a celebrity or the common man, as with the Railway ad (rail gaadi chuk chuk chuk)IJ
let me put it this way. All of Pidilite and Perfetti advertisements have no celebrity anyway. Ninety nine per cent of Asian Paints campaigns have no celebrity. I think you should have a great story and if you find a great actor who will embellish the story, only then think of casting a celebrity.
Celebrities actually bring in pressure because everyone can get too lazy thinking the celebrity’s image will see the campaign through, we won’t need to do anything. At the same time, the storyboard has to be careful about not disturbing the aura or brand image of the celebrity but enhance it. In the end, we have to do everything that much more. A celebrity cannot take away from your brand. At the same time you have a responsibility to not make him/her look stupid in your advertisement.
The railway ad, made by Prakash Varma, had very good actors. Three men from the front engine and the two bogies are stage actors. One of them, I realised much later, had actually featured in lagaan. They were not known faces. But we needed some of these trained people because they became the role model for the rest of the ordinary people who were in that human chain. They were not chosen as celebrities. They were chosen as actors.
Having said that, I do not see celebrities as a pressure but a challenge. If you get an opportunity to work with Mr Bachchan, you have to understand that you might not get a chance to work with him ever again. Or find that he is as ecstatic about local food as we were in Saputara, Gujarat.
Were the celebrity choices made by you when you got the briefIJ
No. For the Gujarat tourism project, Mr Bachchan selected me and it was not the other way around. Sachin was 16 years old when I did his first ad. I think it’s usually a joint decision. But if you look at it very honestly, celebrity selection comes from the client’s side than from the agencies.
You keep mentioning four major brands throughout the book — Pidilite, Asian Paints, Cadbury and Vodafone. Is it because they have been the longest associationsIJ
The longer associations have the greatest stories. There are wonderful clients with whom we have worked for two to three years and for whom we created some fabulous work. But it is only human that we tend to remember stories that we have grown up with.
So it would be wrong to ask you about a favourite campaignIJ
Every client and project is a favourite of mine. But as I said, we are only human and we remember the longer relationships a lot better. Our interactions cover three decades.
Would you rate your campaigns thenIJ
I will categorise them as milestones. In a long journey, each milestone is important as per the relevance of its time and place. So if I were to posit the Chal Meri luna ad with the new Fortune cooking oil ad, there is no comparison. I would say that was great for 1987, the latter is great for 2014. let me go back to cricket again; can you compare Bradman with TendulkarIJ They are both great but comparisons are unreal.
Have you been inspired by work done by other agenciesIJ
A lot actually. When I was growing up, I found the Hamara Bajaj ad very inspiring and Indian. later, Coca Cola did some wonderful work with Aamir Khan. There is no question of not appreciating what is being done and how it inspires others.
Do you think that emotion is going to drive content and make it heardIJ
I think human beings are emotional. Why are you wearing the earring, why do you wear the better brands, why do you use certain thingsIJ Because you like something and may have a story or personal history woven into it. A human being has in-built emotions and we need to tap into them.
Which parts of India do you think need brandingIJ
Undoubtedly the Northeast; it is way too beautiful and none of us has seen it properly, let alone understand it. We learnt from Kerala when it branded itself and saw the success. Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have been successful too.
Why do we require brandingIJ We need to attract people and not only for tourism. You attract investments and development by way of encouraging interaction and letting people see for themselves. What is good about you and what it means to people defines a brand. All States in our country need branding. Today if we are saying we’ve got an opportunity for you to make in India, it’s branding.
What is the fine line between branding and overt propagandaIJ
It’s simple, when you love me, I am branding myself well. When you hate me, you’ve got propaganda.
What were the challenges in the Narendra Modi campaign, considering there was a negative image perception of him in certain quartersIJ
I don’t think we ever looked at established perceptions. We looked up to him as we would any other product: What does he bring to the party and how is he relevant to the peopleIJ
Perception is relative. What some people call baggage, others would call strength. If you get caught up in all this, you will never be able to do anything. Move on to what you have on the table. People were very positive about Mr Modi being the leader of the NDA and then we projected a futuristic India that could benefit from his personality.
Would he have done it without the brandingIJ
Yes, he would have got the verdict regardless. I think he was the warrior and we were the perfect bards.
Where did the words ‘achche din’ come fromIJ Did you hit on the slogan just like that or were there lengthy deliberationsIJ
This happened when we were presenting our credentials. There was this young team which came up with the slogan. We recorded the song and played it during the selection process. There was no dispute that it had to be the pitch.
Now that people are asking “Kahaan hai achche dinIJ”, how would you rebrand Mr Modi’s message todayIJ
We should not worry about day-to-day responses. India is a huge country and things take time. Achche beej boge to achche din aayenge, magar beej bone ka matlab ye nahin ki kal subah aam ugg jayenge. (Sow quality seeds for a better tomorrow. It doesn’t mean that you will reap mangoes the next morning). He has started saying that himself.
India is a huge cycle and it needs time to turn. I think this country is going to happen and happen. Youngsters should feel positive about our nation because I can see life getting so much better. They have an opinion on issues which are going to be very valuable to society.
What tagline would you choose to define yourselfIJ
Take it as it comes.
Why did you close the book with an explanatory chapter on why you wouldn’t leave OgilvyIJ
I needed to clarify to one and all about where I stand. A lot of people are worried about my future more than I am. Some want to know which company I have invested in. So I just thought of clarifying that they should worry about their losses than worrying about me.
What according to you is the frontier of your creativityIJ
I am a storyteller and I like to delight people. Now it could be any media but yes I want you to laugh and cry with me.