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The Man Who Spoke Our Language: Piyush Pandey And The Soul Of Indian Advertising

Piyush Pandey, the adman who taught India that advertising could speak like the people, to the people, and for the people, died this week, leaving behind a legacy that redefined Indian communication. His ads did not just sell products -- they told stories, sparked emotions, and spoke the living language of the street, the home, and the heart, as many have told you since his death on Friday.

Piyush Pandey Written by
The Man Who Spoke Our Language: Piyush Pandey And The Soul Of Indian Advertising

The Man Who Spoke Our Language: Piyush Pandey And The Soul Of Indian Advertising

Piyush Pandey, the adman who taught India that advertising could speak like the people, to the people, and for the people, died this week, leaving behind a legacy that redefined Indian communication. His ads did not just sell products — they told stories, sparked emotions, and spoke the living language of the street, the home, and the heart, as many have told you since his death on Friday.

For over four decades, Pandey’s creative genius shaped how Indians saw themselves on screen. From laughter-filled Fevicol commercials to the soulful call of Mile Sur Mera Tumhara, from humour to humanity, he built bridges between brands and billions. He was not a salesman; he was a storyteller.

Speaking the Language of the People

Piyush Pandey’s greatest gift was simplicity – in everything he managed to do, and both personally and professlionally. He believed advertising had to sound like the people it was meant for — not like imported ideas from Madison Avenue. He once said, “If people don’t understand your words, they will never understand your brand.”

Born and raised in Jaipur, Pandey’s early life shaped his earthy sensibility. Before joining Ogilvy in 1982, he was a cricketer and a tea-taster — both experiences that gave him a keen eye for people, places, and the small stories that make life meaningful.

 

When he finally took the reins of creativity at Ogilvy India, he brought with him not the polish of the elite, but the pulse of the ordinary. Over time, he made Ogilvy not just the country’s biggest agency, but its conscience and cultural mirror.

Polio Drops and Public Change

One of his most powerful works came in 2002 — the Pulse Polio campaign featuring Amitabh Bachchan. With the now-iconic line “Do Boond Zindagi Ke” (Two drops of life), Pandey’s storytelling transformed a government initiative into a national movement. Remember, that was the time Big B was making his comeback to the entertainment world after many failures.

The campaign showed Bachchan, fierce and impatient, scolding parents for neglecting their children’s health. The ad was more than an appeal — it was a moral call. Mothers queued at vaccination centres; volunteers poured into the field. A health campaign became a social crusade.

Later, Bachchan would recall that mothers were “terrified” to face him on TV, rushing to give their children the drops just so they wouldn’t be “that negligent mother” in his eyes. That was the power of Pandey’s emotional truth — it made people act, and buy, in most cases.

A Seat for Compassion: The Anti-Smoking Campaign

If the Polio campaign stirred duty, his anti-smoking campaign stirred empathy. Created for the Cancer Patients Aid Association in 2000, it carried the unforgettable line: “Show kindness to smokers. They don’t have much time left.”

The film shows two elderly men sitting in a bus. When a young man lights a cigarette, one old man quietly offers him his seat by the window. The reason? “Because he doesn’t have much time left.” No shouting, no statistics — just a quiet, devastating truth as he did with many of his campaigns.

That was Pandey’s genius: he did not lecture; he revealed. And in revealing, he made us feel, like we are part of his story.

Changing the Grammar of Indian Advertising

Pandey’s entry into advertising in the 1980s coincided with India’s television revolution. Western-style jingles and polished accents dominated the airwaves. Pandey broke that mould. He replaced English punchlines with Hindi heartbeats, turning slogans into songs of the soil.

Cadbury's tribute

Cadbury’s tribute

“Advertising was speaking in tuxedos,” he once joked. “I made it wear a kurta.”

His early work for Luna Moped — “Chal Meri Luna” — gave mobility a middle-class voice as well women. His first-ever written ad, for Sunlight Detergent, marked the beginning of a creative journey that would reshape an entire industry.

Cadbury: Sweetness for Everyone

In 1993, Pandey created a revolution with Cadbury Dairy Milk’s campaign “Kuch Khaas Hai Hum Sabhi Mein” (There’s something special in all of us).


The commercial — showing a young woman dancing on a cricket field as her boyfriend hits a winning shot — broke stereotypes and melted hearts. Chocolate was no longer a children’s treat; it became a celebration of everyday joy. His use of cricket, another national feeling after Bollywood, paved the way for many more interesting ads surrounding the game. And obviously, many people watched them as they sat for days to witness cricket. Later, as history has shown it, cricket became the biggest carrier of Indian advertisement, before and after the emergence of T20 cricket.

In Cadbury’s case, Pandey’s insight was simple yet profound: Indians don’t just eat chocolate; they share moments. And so, Cadbury became not a product, but a feeling.

Every Home Has a Story: Asian Paints

In 2002, Pandey gave India another unforgettable line: “Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai” (Every home has a story).

The campaign for Asian Paints turned a paint company into a chronicler of family memories. A newly married couple painting their first home, an old father redoing a room for his son’s return — these were not ads; they were intimate portraits of Indian life.

Fevicol's tribute to man with the moustache

Fevicol’s tribute to man with the moustache

For Pandey, walls weren’t just surfaces; they were storytellers.

Interestingly, Pandey has used all things influenced the public psyche after the emergence of television and its shared entertainment – cricket, realty, family, Indian values and emergence of new communication techs.

The Glue of India: Fevicol and Fevikwik

Perhaps no other brand represents Piyush Pandey’s humour and humanity better than Fevicol from Pidilite. For decades, he transformed a simple adhesive into a cultural metaphor for unity, resilience, and laughter.
From buses overflowing with people stuck together, to fishermen unable to separate their glued catch, Fevicol Ka Mazboot Jod became a phrase synonymous with unbreakable bonds.


And then came Fevikwik — with the iconic tagline “Todo Nahin, Jodo” (Don’t break, join). The message was both literal and moral — an adhesive that mended not just objects, but relationships.

Vodafone’s Pug and ZooZoos: Visual Simplicity, Global Impact

In the 2010s, Pandey once again reinvented communication through Vodafone’s lovable Pug and later the ZooZoo characters.


The pug, following its owner loyally through lanes and fields, became a metaphor for network reliability. The ZooZoos — white, egg-shaped characters with minimal dialogue –conveyed humour and emotion with simplicity and style.

Pandey proved that Indian advertising could be global in idea and local in feeling –universal yet unmistakably desi.

Ponds and Titan: Selling Emotions, Not Products

For Ponds, he created the playful “Googly Woogly Woosh” campaign — a celebration of affection and joy, turning a skincare product into a symbol of fun and closeness.

Amul's tribute to Piyush Pandey

Amul’s tribute to Piyush Pandey

For Titan Watches, his “Joy of Gifting” campaign transformed a timepiece into a moment of love. Pandey’s message was clear: brands don’t sell products; they sell memories.

He believed emotion was the ultimate currency in communication — and he spent it wisely.

When Advertising Became Citizenship

Pandey’s vision of advertising was deeply civic. It wasn’t just about commerce; it was about conscience. His work with UNICEF and the Government of India for Polio Eradication proved that communication could change national behaviour.

Similarly, his collaboration with The Hindu newspaper on “Stay Ahead of the Times” (2011) urged young audiences to think critically amid a flood of infotainment. It mocked the mindless chatter of television debates, asking India to read, not react.

That campaign was Pandey at his boldest — taking on the noise of media with the quiet power of reason.

The Political Turn: “Ab Ki Baar, Modi Sarkar”

In 2014, Pandey’s words crossed into politics with the now-historic slogan “Ab Ki Baar, Modi Sarkar”. Whether admired or criticised, it became one of the most recognisable political taglines in modern India.

It showed how far Pandey’s influence had reached — from selling chocolates and adhesives to shaping national narratives. He had become not just the voice of brands, but of a generation.

Awards, Accolades, and the Art of Staying Grounded

Under Pandey’s leadership, Ogilvy India became the most awarded agency in the country. Yet, for all the global recognition — the Padma Shri in 2016, the London International “Legend” Award in 2024 — he remained rooted in his trademark humility.


When asked once what he was most proud of, he said, “That my ads made my mother smile.”

That was the measure of his success — not trophies, but tears and laughter shared across India’s countless living rooms.

The Power of Ordinary Stories

Across his body of work, one theme stands tall: the dignity of the ordinary. Pandey found poetry in the everyday — a bus ride, a cricket match, a coat of paint, a grandmother’s smile.

He gave the Indian middle class its voice, its pride, and its humour. In an industry obsessed with glamour and gloss, he chose dust and sunlight. His ads were not about aspiration; they were about belonging.

That’s why his lines — “Kuch Khaas Hai Hum Sabhi Mein,” “Todo Nahin, Jodo,” “Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai” — live on not just in memory, but in language itself.

A Storyteller Before a Strategist

The advertising world today speaks in data, metrics, and algorithms. Pandey spoke in emotions. For him, the best strategy was a good story.

He often reminded young writers, “You’re not selling soap or cement. You’re selling trust.” And perhaps that’s why his ads endured — because they trusted the audience to feel, to think, to care.

The End of an Era

Piyush Pandey’s death marks more than the loss of a creative titan; it marks the fading of an era when advertising had a soul. When humour could heal, when slogans could unite, and when the best campaigns were about people, not products.


His work lives on — in a nation’s collective memory, in classrooms of advertising schools, and in the millions who still hum his jingles or quote his lines without knowing his name.

Piyush Pandey didn’t just make ads.

He made India talk to itself. And in doing so, he proved that the simplest words — spoken in the people’s tongue, with honesty and heart — can echo for generations.

Topics
Cadbury Fevicol Hutch Piyush Pandey Piyush Pandey ads

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