The Hindu Business Line : A golden initiative

The Advertising Club Madras brought the curtains down on its year-long golden jubilee celebrations with two events - the golden jubilee edition of the club's conference series titled `Advertising Future Shock III' with the theme `Integrated Communication - Disintegrated Agencies' and the grand finale dinner which honoured past presidents and 12 ad professionals who have contributed to the growth of advertising in South India, apart from the release of the golden jubilee commemoration volume.

In this article, I intend to write more about the efforts that went into the grand finale show, particularly the prestigious commemoration volume.

Commemoration volume

When Minitha Saxena the first woman President of the Advertising Club Madras asked me to be the Chairman of the Golden Jubilee celebrations committee, I was delighted. It provided me another opportunity to realise one of my dreams for the club — that of recording for posterity the events and the efforts of people who were instrumental in the Club reaching the pre-eminent position it enjoys in the marketing and advertising world today. So, the idea of the golden jubilee commemoration volume of the Advertising Club Madras was conceived.

It took us 18 months of hard labour to bring out the volume, which not only records the 50-year history of the Ad Club Madras but also attempts to trace the evolution of advertising in South India in the last 50 years.

While the second part could be easily done by requesting some veterans in the field to contribute articles, it was the first part which proved to be a daunting task. Though I took on the challenge with my old friend Krishna, a veteran of the Ad Club Madras who has himself edited the printed version of the club's magazine Headline in the past, I was worried, because our earlier attempt to bring out a book had ended in failure. The problem was compounded by the fact that no records of the club in any form for the period before 1994 were available at the club secretariat. It therefore became a massive hunt for old materials.

We talked to past presidents, some old veterans, and also relatives of past presidents.

The first ray of hope came when V. S. Padmanabhan of Bangalore sent us a bulletin of Ad Club Kolkata dated February 1957, which talked about the inaugural function of Ad Club Madras and its activities for the first year. This helped us get documentary proof of the inauguration date (April 7 1956) - until then it was all guess work!

The next break came when we got the second annual report of the club and also a copy of the first club bulletin Image released in December 1964, when C.G.K. Reddy of The Hindu was the President of the club. Some past pesidents helped us with a few old issues of souvenirs and Kalidas, past president, helped us with newspaper clippings on the Ad Club from the archives of The Hindu.

Our hunt for information and pictures sometimes drew a blank; sometimes it led us to gold mines. Like the time past president K. A. Srinivasan and I were walking by the lanes and by-lanes of Nandanam to locate the address of another past president for almost two hours before a local grocer directed us to the correct address.

We really hit a jackpot when Krishna managed to locate, from a photographer in Kodambakkam, a group photograph taken on January 8, 1956 - the day the Founding Fathers of the club met at Hotel Dasaprakash to decide about the formation of the club. We really went through our `highs' and `lows' in collecting info and photographs for the period before 1994.

Thanks to the establishment of the Ad Club Secretariat in 1994, we could get complete records of all the activities of the club since 1994 and we felt we had enough material for the club history.

The commemoration volume appears in three parts. In the first part, we have attempted to trace its history, highlighting some important milestones and achievements of past presidents.

The second section describes in detail the regular events of the club, illustrating them with pictures. The reflections of S. R. Ayer and N. Murali on their association with the club completes the story.

The third section on the evolution of advertising in South India has three articles. The article from V. Kalidas deals with the first 25 years and is supplemented by an article on the film media by the veteran documentary film producer Dr S. Krishnaswamy. Ramanujam Sridhar's article records his reflection on how the advertising scene has shaped up in the last 25 years.

Though not exhaustive, we believe we have managed to trace the origin and evolution of the Ad Club Madras during the first three decades followed by consolidation and enviable growth in the next two decades.

The club comes through as a strong, financially healthy, administratively sound, vibrant organisation with multifaceted activities covering training, education, entertainment and sports. The volume will certainly be a useful reference book for students of advertising.

What the club stands for

What has made the Advertising Club Madras tick over the years? The role of past presidents and a few dedicated members who continue to provide help and guidance whenever required.

Though for the last 12 years, the office bearers have been enjoying the facility of a permanent secretariat that takes care of the routine matters, in the earlier years the club used to operate out of the office of an executive committee (EC) member who was totally involved with the club.

Another interesting phenomenon is the composition of the club's EC which has always seen a judicious mix of professionals from big multinational ad agencies and a few who run their own outfits and are not answerable to any boss for the time they devote to the club.

Another contributing factor is the tremendous team spirit. There may have been differences and fights over issues, but when it came to a crunch the entire team rose up to the challenge and delivered the goods.

I have enjoyed being part of this team for the last 20 years out of the 33 years that I have been a member of the club. I hope more youngsters come forward with new ideas and contribute their time and efforts so that the club can continue to grow.

(The writer is CMD, Anugrah Madison Advertising, and Chairman, Golden Jubilee Celebrations Committee, Ad Club Madras.)

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