The Amusing Story Of Amul Campaigns

Megha

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5 min read

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Jun 19, 2021

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Our country is 73 years old and the Amul campaign is 54 years old, now if that’s not amusing to anyone who has been on the either side of the table of the advertising business I don’t know what is. It does make one wonder.

It’s one ad which everyone in your family would know about, your neighbour, your long distant aunt living in another city, your NRI friends, the politicians, the media guys, your pav wala, newspaper wala and the Kirana wala would know about it to. What did the brand do so right, that the recognition and the growth goes horizontally and vertically, with all guns blazing? hmm.

The started the ad series which only talked about butter but soon became the commentator of India for its big and short, the news and the joys, the happenings and the fall-outs. One of my big ideas of advertising has been that, the ads are the commentator of the changing culture and times. The ad which you see today will be so different than what you saw five years down the line. The lingo changes the media changes the modes of communication changes. The best ads we remember today ,those are the brands which moved hand in hand with the changing times.

Amul is one such revolution, their utterly butterly deliciousness. There hardly goes any major event which the Amul girl does not comment on. The Amul Mascot has become so familiar and homely that people now look out for it, it belongs more to the people now than it does to the brand. Talking more about the brand mascot, she’s a chubby little girl who is filled with wit and her tongue-in-cheek humour.

As a copywriter myself, I wanted to scoop just a little more than anyone who’s a consumer of the ad, I watched a few videos online to know what goes behind the making of these topical, five days a week, 220 a year ads.

In a few videos that I saw of Rahul Dacunha, he talked about several ideas that come into play in the practise the business and the craft.

‘India is so old but nascent’ he said. At first he dwelled on the multiple India(s) that we live in today. For example if you just consider Bombay as something different than the rest of the India, the south of Bombay is different to the north of Bombay. And likewise while the people of Hyderabad consume one type of humour and language the people of Kerala and Tamil Nadu will prefer something completely different. It is different for different people, with the geography changes the language and with the language changes the way they consume the ad. He says, that there are few ads which are made by Amul which are topical and targeted to a respective geography. They even have micro-research units set across India to be able to get the pulse of the nation in news.

He also talked about how careful he is with the humour and the commentary that he uses in the ad. While it plays safe enough to not go in the face of someone to offend them in order to prove a point, it also does not stay on the fence. It’s edgy when it wants to be.

The copy is usually, simple, short and to the point. Also another thing which I take from this is the coordination between the art director and the copywriter, the copy is hardly ever off the sync with the ad, which makes the a come together like perfectly assembled jig-saw pieces. The team works in such cohesion and rhythm that it shows. Also, the creative team is given ample freedom from the client side, otherwise what usually happens for the brand is the ad is made and then given to the client and then approved and then its published on the respective medium.

Talking about the creative process, of churning ads everyday, he said that he along with the copywriter and the cartoonist, read the newspaper everyday in the morning and knit-pick the issues which fit. While there are few things which can be dealt with humour some things need to be depicted as is with the characters. There are ads which need to go that very day, there are ads which are on trend and won’t make sense if they go other day and then there are ads if they publish on Wednesday the buzz will stay for considerable amount of days. While this may sound tedious, the machinery of this production is so well oiled and effective that they are able to carry the tradition while catching up with the changing India.

‘We take it from the popular culture and give it back to the popular culture’. Now that’s a pretty good advice for anyone in Advertising or in the business of media. Gone are the days when the information used to only come from one body, now a heap of opinion also has become the part of news, the social media has filled in the gap between the news and the receivers of news. It’s not just news but how does it impact us, is what now happens to be an important part of the online conversation today.

And the last thing which I did not find in any of the videos but is my personal take away and deeply respect Amul for is, how it has maintained to be autonomous in its artistic pursuits, what I mean to say is its not a platform where the promotion happens in favour of any party, it is independent and honest in its messaging. A brand which continues to be as honest and authentic will forever be the brand of the country, Amul ,really is the taste of India.