In India, at least as far as I know, if its butter it has got to be Utterly Butterly Delicious Amul! Today Amul is a symbol of many things apartfrom butter- Chocolates, ice-creams, an unending list of milk products, pizzas and even sweets, but the name amul immediately brings in images of the “Amul Baby”, her red and white polka-dotted dress, her orange face, the hoardings that changed every week and the brilliant one liners they had on them. The father of ‘white revolution’ Dr Verghese Kurien, who transformed India from a milk-deficient country to the world’s largest milk producer is the founder of Amul.
An icon of the sorts of modern India, the utterly butterly deliciously witty, Amul Girl is an integral part of the Amul campaign,The girl, wearing a polka-dot frock, famous for poking fun at national events and personalities, first made an appearance in 1967. Amul advertisements are among the best ad campaigns in India. Entertaining and captivating, these ads have made lasting impressions since decades. The Amul advertisement journey began in 1966, when the company approached Sylvester DaCunha to design a new ad campaign for Amul Butter. He designed an ad campaign with a series of smart and witty topical ads, which became a huge hit. Manish Jhaveri has been writing the scripts for these hoardings since 1995. There are many reasons why the Amul ad fans are only increasing over the years.
Firstly, there are so many critical aspects to the print ads and hoardings that get people wanting more year after year. Secondly, from children to grandparents everyone can connect to the ads and I believe it is extremely important to build a brand- customer relationship. Amul does his particularly well. Lastly, it covers the most talked about and ‘happening’ issues – from politics to Bollywood, sports, of the country and the world in the most humorous way with the products so well placed between it all. Here are some of the Amul Ads over the years:
- This is one of the earliest ads of Amul somewhere around 1980s. The ad shows Amul celebrating the Diwali Festival. This Ad looks simple yet attractive. The colours used in the illustration are perfect as per the occasion the ad is addressing. The copy of the advertisement is very cleverly associated with Amul. The copy, in a very subtle way is completing Amul’s popularity as one of the strongest Brand in the country.
- This advertisement was released in 1993 when Marathi was introduced in schools as a compulsory subject till Std. VIII. The detailed and powerful illustration of a school girl and a Marathi woman portrays it all. And the use of Marathi words in the copy only ads to the entire idea, complementing the illustration. Once again, very smartly associating the brand with the situation, this is something Amul masters at.
- This advertisement was released in 1994 with the introduction of Manmohan Singh’s liberalisation policy encouraging multinationals to come to India and gave Indians the taste of Coke, Pepsi and good times. The copy of the advertisement cannot get any wittier. It describes the entire liberalization scenario of having its own pros and cons so effortlessly. It is a total thought provoking advertisement. Also during this phase Amul began to put the politicians at the receiving end of its jibes, with a galore of scams.
- ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ was one of the most popular shows on television when it was first introduced in 2000 and it continues to hold its position ever since. The audiences were very excited when the news of Amitabh Bachchan hosting the TV show came out and it was indeed a very big deal for the Indian audience to watch The Super Star of Bollywood on a television show. Taking advantage of this, very cleverly Amul incorporated the tagline, “The Big AB” which was very smart and striking.
- Very evidently around the 2000s, Amul started focusing on Bollywood and sports increasingly. Bollywood and scandals go hand in hand, giving Amul one more platform to flaunt its witty humor. This time it was with one of the Bollywood film star who drove over pavement dwellers. The Ad simply tries to show how the law and police dealt with the entire controversy. The masterstroke of the advertisement was definitely the sharp tagline, “Clearly Favoured”.
- This advertising is about the Indian fast bowler Sreesanth’s aggressive on-field behavior with Australian batsmen during the second One-day International in India – October ’07. The Amul advertisements always manage to make the audience laugh with its unconventionally humorous comments and taglines. Also, the illustration is so well portrayed that it creates an immediate connection with the audience.
- The Indian politicians have always been a source of inspiration and amazement for the Brand. This was a very famous incident when a journalist hurled a shoe at the Home Minister at a press conference in Delhi – April ’09. The illustration is the exact pick of the incident. The copy of the advertisement gives a complete laughter ride.
- The international arena has always held great fascination for the Amul hoarding. They’ve always kept their ears to the globe! This time it was the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in London – April 2011. A beautiful illustration with a short and crisp copy makes the ad impactful. But the ad could have been better looking with brighter colors used for the copy.
- An advertisement showing how brothers Anil and Mukesh Ambani are competing with one another building their huge private mansions in Mumbai in Dec 2010. The copy of the advertisement is in Hinglish and fits so perfectly with the picture and the situation it is describing. Using Hinglish in the copy is probably the main reason that makes the advertisement so amusing to look at.
- This Amul ad shows the unprecedented political controversy created by Mamata Banerjee as her party vowed to fight the nominal hike in train ticket fares announced, a decision made by its own minister Dinesh Trivedi. This rib-tickling ad’s credit goes to its one-liner. I must say, Amul ads are like wine they just keep getting better with time.
