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    India's best ad women tell which commercial got them into advertising

    Synopsis

    After the story ' ads that inspired our ad men to get into business', here's getting a few of India's best ad women to weigh in this time.

    ET Bureau
    Our story a few weeks ago about the ads that inspired many of our ad men to get into (or stick with) the business got such a huge response we decided to revisit the idea, getting a few of India's best ad women to weigh in this time.

    Priti Nair, founder, Curry Nation

    The ad for Woodwards Gripe Water. I loved how they went from one generation to the other. I was in college at the time and this was a different format when everything was testimonial-driven. It made me feel you can do something quite different and creative in advertising. It also became the inspiration for a lot of stuff; kind of like what the kids today do with memes. Kaay zhala (what happened? in Marathi) was quite a common question and baal radat hota (the child was crying) became the answer to it.

    Image article boday


    Priti Nair (Image: Agencies)
    Later I learned this was an ad done by Chax (Priti Nair's husband KS Chakravarthy). It is still something that stands out in my mind as an example of good advertising. If I'm allowed a second, the old ad for Britannia Coconut Crunches. I can still sing that jingle top to bottom and remember the cookies coming right out of a coconut.

    Swati Bhattacharya, chief creative officer, FCB Ulka

    I don't exactly remember which year it was, but what I remember is I was in school. After trying to convince my dad for years, he agreed to get us a colour TV. One day while I was on the lawn I heard Billy Joel playing. I rushed in to see this black and white ad for Lakme starring Sharon Clarke with Billy Joel singing 'she's always a woman to me'. This ad had everything — mood, soul, fashion and it looked so international. At a time when we didn't even know what international was, every Indian girl who saw it knew that Lakme took her beauty seriously. To do a beauty ad without needing a man, to do an ad in black and white and to do it with such grace, here was a kind of minimalism we had never seen in our beauty ads.

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    Swati Bhattacharya (Image: Agencies)

    I saw it and it infected me with all the possibilities of storytelling in ads. The joy of tightrope walking between sensuality and sexuality. To sell romance to a woman without needing a man to propose to her at the end of the commercial. These are things that still make my workday happy.
    Nisha Singhania, co-founder and director, Infectious

    The 'Salaam Bombay' campaign by Trikaya Grey after the 1993 bomb blasts. A campaign which every Bombay person would remember with immense pride. The city was reeling with shock and grief and suddenly this campaign came in and converted our grief to pride. For me this campaign showed me the power of advertising. On how great advertising can connect with people and win them over. I almost immediately knew that this is the kind of work I would want to do someday.

    Image article boday


    Nisha Singhania (Image: Agencies)


    Deepa Geethakrishnan, national creative director (HUL) -Lowe Lintas

    It was Prasoon (Pandey) and his first ad for Bajaj Sunny (featuring an African tribe). But the ad (written and directed by Pandey) didn't draw me to advertising, it's what made me stay in advertising; work that makes you think 'wish I had done that'. I joined Lowe in the films department in 1993 after doing my MA in communications from MCRC Jamia. (I thought film divisions in advertising agencies wrote and made films, but turns out all they did was costing.) Then I went off to the US to do few courses on advanced lighting for film and video at NYU. I came back in 1994 and joined Prasoon in a department called special projects films. It was a two person department (him and me). When he quit, I had a choice I could stay or leave to make documentary films. I spoke to Prasoon and he said “advertising mein batting seekh” (learn to bat in advertising). It's been 21 years at Lowe.

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    Deepa Geethakrishnan (Image: Agencies)


    Tista Sen, national creative director, JWT

    I chose advertising with just one agenda: I wanted to write. Words beckoned. Pithy copy that lingered long after you turned the page. The Mauritius campaign 99% fun 1% land had me hooked. Beautiful visuals notwithstanding I felt I was there. Or had to go that very minute. Sun, sand, surf, solitude et all. Weirdly the first campaign I did as a junior writer was for Mauritius. It was b/w 50 cc and no budget so I did the illustrations myself. There was a number you had to call and the day it appeared. I made all my family and friends call to ostensibly enquire. Trivia: The travel company eventually went bust.

    Image article boday


    Tista Sen (Image: Agencies)

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