The Hindu Business Line : Creative Chairmen

Forget the days when the creative types skulked around in the art departments of advertising agencies, sporting pony tails and smoking beedis. This is the era of the Creative CEO, call him or her what you like. Piyush with his quivering moustache was the first to make it to the boardroom. His fantastic people skills and his awesome creative talent made him a natural leader. Then came his erstwhile understudy Prasoon Joshi. With his Bollywood image helping him to the hilt, the lyricist is now scripting management success stories at McCann. And the latest creative to call the shots in an agency is Josy Paul. Yes, he of the Nepalese cap and the penchant for creative gimmicks who was with David, first opted to be NCD at Goliath (JWT) and then probably thought two NCDs were one too many, and took over the reins at BBDO.

And now it’s Chairman Balki at Lowe. Somehow that designation does seem to rest a trifle uncomfortably on the broad shoulders of the bearded, T-shirted, deliberately contrarian Balki. No doubt he’s a hugely competent person. Yet, his elevation to the post of Chairman changes the image of a Chairman completely. Maybe even for the better. Wonder what Chairman, Lintas means in the new environment. We guess only Prem Mehta can answer that question.

And if someone with a memory for history tells us that the first ‘creative’ person to head an agency was Alyque Padamsee, we will agree with them and also tell them that the creative law of limitations does not allow us to talk of people who have not worked in an agency for over fifteen years.

Laadli and Bobby

You can’t keep a good man down. Bobby Sista (who successfully ran Sistas, and successfully sold it to Saatchi and Saatchi who successfully ran it as Sistas Saatchi and Saatchi before dropping one Sista and one Saatchi from the name) is now running a great NGO called Population First. They have a programme called Laadli, which, as the name signifies, deals with the girl child. And they have an award for advertising agencies and media which are gender-sensitive. These unique Laadli awards would have been successfully presented in Mumbai on the 19th by the time you read this, but we will give you an update on the winners and the function next time around. Let’s just say that in the second year the Laadli Awards and Bobby Sista deserve not two but three cheers.

Awards time

Talking about awards, wonder what’s brewing with our industry awards? The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) seems to be keen on holding its Goafest a little earlier this time to beat the beastly heat of Goa that kept the entire crowd in the air-conditioned tents guzzling chilled beer instead of on the beach. Veteran (these days second-time around makes a man a veteran) Jagdeep Bakshi will be leading the charge. His challenge would not be to get most of the big agencies to enter – they would – but to make sure the Goafest does not degenerate into a large, unruly festival of young advertising types determined to challenge the generosity of the liquor sponsors. That brings us to the Abbies from O&M, oops, we mean from the AdClub Bombay. But then the challenge Bhaskar Das and his not so merry men face is to keep O&M and also bring in the other biggie agencies as well. Not an easy task at all. Yet, all will be known in the next month or so, so watch this space.

Green IAA

Dr Pachauri, the latest Nobel laureate from India, is still relatively under-exposed to the Mumbai corporate circles. The India Chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA) has pulled a bunny out of its hat and organised a lecture by Pachauri in the first week of January. With global warming and a green culture top of the agenda for most corporates these days, the IAA seems to have hit the bullseye with this programme. Must be making other associations, well … green with envy for not having being able to do it themselves.

Au revoir, Venkat

I. Venkat

I.Venkat has made quite a name for himself in advertising circles. The man whose name has been associated with Eenadu Group for the last 38 years has decided that he has had enough in this avatar. Venkat was a mover and shaker in both the Indian Newspapers Society (INS) and the Indian Broadcasters Foundation (IBF). In fact, some people remember he played a vital role in the signing of the agreement between the IBF and the AAAI.

He selflessly worked to make the industry a more efficient and professional place. He will be sorely missed. Yet one hopes he will continue playing some role in industry affairs.

Victoria invites comment on this column at brandline@thehindu.co.in

Victoria

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