The utterly butterly delicious advertisements of Amul
Eustace Fernandes’ legacy of the Amul girl will live on, reminding us of the brilliant ad-maker himself, says Shravya Jain
Bangalore, March 26: It was the summer of 1967 when Amul got its mascot - a little blue-haired moppet wearing a polka-dotted dress with a polka-dotted ribbon in her hair. Since her first advertisement in Mumbai, the girl has not looked back. Aged 44, she is on her way to winning Guinness Book of World Records for being the longest running campaign in the world.
But the man who invented this iconic Amul girl is no more. Eustace Fernandes (75) died in his Mumbai flat on March 11, 2010. After suffering for year
from asthma, lung problems and cancer he finally succumbed to his illnesses.
But really, he will stay alive till the Amul girl doesn’t die out. And it doesn’t seem likely that she will, given her popularity even 40 years after she entered India with quite a splash.
She has been not just the mascot of Amul – she is seen as the voice of India. The ads have shared the public’s ire and jubilation. “Mostly the ads hit a chord with the audience because of their social relevancy or PDA (public display of annoyance) at the Government moves,” says Vanya, student from Mumbai.
Consider the advertisements of the 1980s. “You can’t beat this yellow column” – written in defiance of the newspaper censorship during Indira Gandhi’s rule. Then there is the “Unfit Trust of India” - on the stoppage of repurchase of units by UTI July 2001.
Most recently was the “MPs win, MCPs lose!” – when the Bill for women reservation in parliament got passed.
The ads deal with people from all walks of life. Suiting the ads is the moppet who is anonymous, cute, chubby-cheeked and mischievous. The girl was to be direct competition to Polson butter girl who was a sexy village girl. "Eustace Fernandez (the art director) and I decided that we needed a girl who would worm her way into a housewife's heart. And who better than a little girl?" says Sylvester da Cunha in an article in The Asian Age.
The girl has been with us during our happy times as well. “Kapil Devours the World”, for when Kapil Dev broke Sir Hadlee's record with the maximum number of wickets in test cricket in 1993. “I can’t remember the date but I have the ad etched firmly in my mind. It was when Bachendre Pal climbed Mount Everest. It was really great,” says Mohan Lal, a 55-year-old in Delhi. The advertisement read: Topping Performance; Utt-airless Butt-airless. Pal had climbed the Everest without oxygen support.
Many as a “brilliant cartoonist” who had a “wonderful sense of humour” remember Fernandes.
Alyque Padamsee, chief executive officer, AP Advertising reminisced in an article in CNBC – TV 18 and said, "Fernandes was not a typical advertising person but he always emerged as a brilliant artist and an intense worker. It is a great loss to the advertising industry as a stalwart has departed. He created one of the historic mascots, next only to Air India's Maharaja. Behind his quiet demeanor lied a great sense of humour."
Post Fernandes’ death, a flurry of mails started doing rounds; people talking about his death, some getting nostalgic. Posts Harshvardhan Kadam on Facebook, “The last one he did was MF Hussain’s Qatar. I saw it just a few minutes back and I didn’t know he had passed away”
May he be making more Amulian humour in heaven.
|
