Once a month, our parents used to take us out to eat Pav-bhaji and ice cream. I am a 90’s kid so in those times there was no culture of eating outside once or twice a week. I still remember a day when the waiter was handing over plates to us and my parents told him, ‘’Acchhawala butter dena’’ (give a good quality butter). He suddenly removed butter from plate and placed small packs of Amul butter.
This was my first meet with Amul butter and the lovely iconic Amul girl.
Neither our parents grew up eating butter nor did they know how the quality butter looks like. They are from ‘Shudh desi ghee’ generation. Nevertheless, the only thing they knew was, this is the only butter that we see on TV, newspapers and roadside hoardings.
This was the magic of Amul girl; dressed in red polka dots, with blue hair.
After so many years, the same girl is still running around with her charisma.
This cutie was born in 1966. Dr, Varghese Kurian, the head of Amul and the father of India’s white revolution gave the responsibility of running ad campaign to DaCunha ad agency in Mumbai, run by Sylvester DaCunha. This was the time when Television and print media was expensive. Therefore, they came up affordable but much impactful hoardings. The amul girl came up in response to their rival brand, Polson’s butter girl.
Amul girl was created by Eustace Fernandes, the art director of DaCunha communications in 1966. Whereas, it’s most loved phrase ‘Utterly, butterly delicious’ was given by Nisha DaCunha, wife of Sylvester DaCunha.
( First hoarding of Amul girl, 1966)
In 1994, Rahul DaCunha, son of Sylvester DaCunha took over from his father. Since then the scope of Amul’s advertisements has been widely increased. The Amul girls started commenting more on politics, Bollywood, sports and problems like corruption. She became the voice of India.
From past 30 years, Jayant Rane, now 59, is behind the hand drawn paintings of Amul. Whereas, Manish Jhaveri is the brain behind those catchy taglines. This team is spreading their magic since five decades.
(Amul ad, 1st May. celibrating both, Gujarat divas and Maharashtra din.)
In early days, DaCunha communications used to submit their ad first to Amul Company and would release it later. Taking permissions was taking lots of time. In advertisement, perfect timing is very important for greater impact. Dr. Varghese Kurian knew it. Therefore, to avoid this situation , he gave all creative freedom to DaCunha communicaions. In early 1990s’, after Sylvester, the same creative freedom was given to his son Rahul.
Manish Jhaveri says in an interview given to Hindustan times, ‘’in early decade, we used to release ad, once r twice a month. In 2015, we were able to release five ads per week.’’
After 34 years from her birth, the Amul girl made her place in the Guinness Book of World records. This is the only ad campaign in the country with unchanged theme for 54 years.
However, the road was not always smooth. Many a times, ad agency got legal notices but they never relented.
During Indian airlines strike, Amul ran ad campaign, ‘’Indian airlines serves Amul butter when it flies.’’ Latter the airlines threatened to stop serving Amul butter to their passengers.
In 2011, after the 2010 commonwealth scam; its hoardings were taken down by the followers of Suresh Kalmadi. It said, ‘’ Maine kya khaya?’’ DaCunha said about this incident, ‘’He was found guilty. He was in jail. His party had abandoned him. But party workers in Pune actually pulled down the hoardings’’
Ads with Satyam computers, Jagmohan Dalmiya, Subrato Roy were also served with legal notices.
As time passed, Amul became the brand that could convey general national sentiments through their ads. Few months back, twitter suspended Amul’s account for posting its ‘Exit the dragon’ ad. This ad aimed at governments ‘self-sufficient India’. Amul asked clarity from Twitter. After bashing from social media users, the account was back.
Years passed and Amul has become desi super brand. The Amul girl will keep entertaining us with her tongue in cheek words. Because,
She spears none.
She fears none.
She favors none.