The genius for whom advertising was about magic

More than the mind, he believed an ad needed to touch the heart

- ROSHNI SHEKHAR & ANUSHKA BHARDWAJ

“Yeh Fevicol ka jod hai...” “Chal meri Luna.” “Kuch khaas hai hum sabhi mein.” “Har ghar kuchh kehta hai...” Taglines that, one can safely argue, turned brands into household names.

That was the creative genius of Piyush Pandey, the advertising legend who signed out on October 24, at 70.

Few people have left the kind of imprint on India’s advertising canvas as Piyush Pandey. An observer who seemed to know what made the country tick, a man who could find humour in life’s everyday struggles and spin magic from it, one who understood that to reach the masses you needed to communicate with them in their language and context — he was all of this and more.

Born in Jaipur in 1955, he joined Ogilvy at 27, and went on to rewrite the rules of what was until then an elite game — cerebral and English-centric. More than the head, he believed that ads needed to touch the heart if they were to hit the spot. Ad after ad proved him right, whether it was the brilliant Fevicol campaign, where his homeland, Rajasthan, featured more than once, or the “Hindustan ka dil dekho”

(See the heart of India) ad for Madhya Pradesh tourism.