HISTORY OF
ADVERTISING
INTRODUCTION AND LANDMARKS
HISTORY OF ADVERTISING IN
INDIA
The primitive history of advertising dates back to the
word-of-mouth advertising by hawkers announcing
their articles for sale, merchants roaming from town to
town spreading awareness about their goods and
messengers of the kings announcing their messages.
Advertising in India, in true sense, started in the 18th
century with the birth of classified advertising.
Advertisements appeared for the first time in print in
1780 in Bengal Gazette-India’s first newspaper.
A lot of British retailers and medicine manufacturers
were the major clients of these studios in those times.
The medicine manufacturers were the major clients of
the medicines and retailers advertised their catalogues
containing product information and promotional offers
thereon.
Advertising progress was gradual till the 20th century.
But with India emerging a noteworthy market for
products of many multinational companies, like Lux
were designed for the Indian audience in 1940s
1940-1950
In 1941, Lux signed Leela Chitnis as the first Indian
film actress to endorse the product.
In 1946, Air India’s Bobby Kooka along with JWT’s
(ad agency) Umesh Rao created our own hospitable
Maharaja. The Maharaja was a polished and courteous
man with moustaches, in red imperial clothes, a
striped turban and pointed shoes. The Maharaja made
Air India the first Indian brand to have its own
mascot.
AIR INDIA (1970)
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1950-1960
P&G got Vicks Vaporub in India in 1952 and
positioned it as a one stop solution for all cold
symptoms. As opposed to this, the market leader at
that time, Amritanjan, was positioned as an all purpose
ointment meant for cold aches, pains, sprains, etc.
The All India Radio’s Vividh Bharati Vigyapan Saewa
was started by AIR on October 3, 1957. Among the
first jingles heard were the ones for Hamam, Lifebuoy
and Vicco Vajradanti.
1959 saw the marketing of India’s
first detergent powder ‘Surf’ by
Alyque Padamsee, an advertising
guru.
VICKS VAPORUB TVC
1960-1970
The Muscle-man of MRF was created by
Alyque Padamse. For MRF tyres, durability was
a key issue. Alyque and his gang dreamt up of a
muscleman who to be the company’s public
face-mascot who represented the essence and
soul of the product promise- Strength. This gave
it an instant identity and definition of what the
brand stood for.
1964 saw Lifebuoy go through a major re-launch
campaign. In the early 1960s, Lifebuoy was being
sold as a body-odour soap. The marketing team at
Lintas (ad agency) believed that the same strategy
should be adopted in India. However, Alyque
Padamsee, who was with Lintas at that time,
convinced them that the health factor would work
better for Lifebuoy in India. Thus, came the famous
jingle, “Lifebuoy hai jahan tandaroosti hai wahan.”
Amul’s cute and bubbly ‘Utterly Butterly Delicious
mascot was created. The first Amul hoarding sporting
the ‘Utterly Butterly Delicious’ girl in a polka dot
frock came up in 1967, in a hoarding in Mumbai. The
Amul girl has made its way into the Guinness Book of
World Records as the longest running outdoor
advertising campaign.
AMUL MANTHAN AD
AMUL AD (2011)
AMUL TASTE OF INDIA TVC
(2011)
1970-80
Liril’s positioning as a bathing soap made
Alyque Padamsee a legend in the advertising
fraternity. The landmark idea came in 1975 and
what we saw was the Liril girl drenched under
the falls wearing only a bikini. The ad was all
about waterfalls, abundant water and the girl
splashing about in total abandon singing “la...la
la laaaa...” The first Liril ad was a masterpiece
in itself. It was shot in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu
at a waterfall.
In 1977, Coca Cola was virtually driven out of India. Eager to
cash into the space left behind, companies started launching the
domestic colas including: Double 7, followed by Campa Cola,
Thumps Up and McDowell’s Thrill. While the other became
popular in some local markets, Campa Cola dominated the
Delhi market and Thums Up ruled in Mumbai.
1970s saw the emergence of National Readership Surveys that
fast started providing relevant data on consuming reading
habits.
The birth of television in India in 1978 radically transformed
the way advertising industry presented itself.
LIRIL ADVERTISEMENT (1985)
LIRIL PREITY ZINTA AD
GOLD SPOT AD (1985)
1980-90
The soft drink concentrate concept was introduced in
India. First launched as Jaffe in 1976, Pioma, an
Ahmedabad based company, change the name to
Rasna in 1979. The company, along with the Mudra
group launched that ‘I Love You Rasna’ campaign in
1983. Rasna launched a soft drink concentrate with a
range of nine flavours on a platform that offered both
taste and economy. In 1986, Rasna became India’s
largest selling drink concentrate.
RASNA AD (1980S)
Charms, the cigarette brand, initiated the trend for
colour ads in newspapers.
In 1982, the Asian Games virtually brought a
whopping change in the lives of millions of Indians,
when colour TV made debut in India. Colour TV
brought with it a new medium of advertising.
In 1983, Voltas came up with a huge corporate ad in
the Times of India, laced with enticing body copy and
sparkling visuals. No one did two-page ads at that time,
Voltas took the plunge and spent their annual
advertising budget on this one ad.
TOBACCO PRINT
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CHARMS CIGARETTE PRINT
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In 1980s, when Surf was facing a tough battle from Nirma, an
economically priced detergent, Lintas came up with a bargain
oriented housewife ‘Lalitaji’ , who with her remark “Surf ki
kharidari mein hi samjhadri hai” won the battle for the brand
fair and square.
SURF EXCEL LALITAJI TVC
Persis Khambatta became the new Garden woman in 1985. Persis’
uninhibited attitude in the Garden commercials represented the
new urban Indian women of the 1980s.
Nestle came up with its 2-minute snack food, Maggi noodles, and
the brand has never looked back since then.
Hero Honda rolled out its first motorcycle, the CD 100, in 1985
with the memorable lines ‘Fill it, Shut it, Forget it’ campaign.
The ‘Hamara Bajaj’ campaign helped Bajaj to establish an
emotional connect with consumers and also sustained Bajaj’s
sales which was experiencing a slump prior to the campaign.
MAGGI TVC: MUMMY, I AM
HUNGRY (1985)
BAJAJ TVC (1989)
HERO HONDA CD 100 (1985)
The Onida’s Devil was born in the 1980s. Swishing his
green tail and evil eyes in style, he positioned Onida as
a television which is ‘Neighbour’s envy, owner’s pride.’
Men finally got a soap when Vinod Khanna was signed
for Cinthol soap in 1986.
Pepsi’s ad campaign , “Yahi hai right choice baby, aha’’
featuring Remo Fernandes using a combination of Hindi
and English made its way into the hearts of the
teenagers of India.
1990 AND 2000
The 1990s stand witness to a radical transformation in
the Indian TV industry. Breaking the monopoly of
Doordarshan, the 1990s saw the satellite TV hit India.
Star Plus was the first satellite TV channel to be aired in
the Indian subcontinent. This was followed by Zee TV,
India’s first private satellite channel.
1990s marked the beginning of a new-medium Internet.
Advertising agencies opened new media shops and went
virtual with websites and Internet advertising.
In 1998, Pepsi Co. came up with the first
animated mascot, Fido Dido, for their lemon
flavoured fizz drink, 7 Up. The mascot was first of
its kind as it sang, danced, joked, laughed and
cried with an equally enthralled audience.
The Tuff shoes TV and print campaign released in
1998 flaunted models Milind Soman and Madhu
Sapre, clad in nothing but a python and Tuff
shoes. The ad led to a lot of public protest.
FIDO DIDO 7UP
7 UP FIDO DIDO AD (1991)
TW: OBSCENITY
TUFF SHOES ADVERTISEMENT
In the early 1990s, chocolates were seen as ‘meant
for kids’, usually a reward or bribe for children. In
the mid 1990s the category was re-defined by the
very popular ‘Real Taste of Life’ campaign by
Cadbury, shifting the focus from ‘just for kids’ to
the ‘kid in all of us’. The ‘Real Taste of Life’
campaign had many memorable executions, which
people still fondly remember. However, the one
with the “girl dancing on the cricket field” has
remained imprinted in everyone’s memory, as the
most spontaneous and natural expression of
happiness.
CADBURY ADVERTISEMENT: KUCH
BAAT HAI ZINDAGI MEIN
THE NEW MILLENIUM
The Government of India launched the ‘Incredible
India’ campaign in 2003 to attract more tourists into
the country. The campaign highlighted the
geographical, historical and traditional glory of India.
Hutch came up with its cute little mascot-the pug.
Hutch’s slogan “Wherever you go our Network
follows” was closely tied up with the Hutch-pug
campaign. The Hutch network was personified as the
adorable pug following the owner.
HUTCH ADVERTISEMENT
(2009)
Social Advertising received a boost in 2003 with the
‘Do boond Zindagi ki’ campaign. The Association of
Amitabh Bachchan with the campaign brought
credibility to the National Pulse Polio Immunisation
Programme. The main objective of the campaign was to
urge people through public interest ads to get their
children vaccinated against polio.
The metrosexual male arrived with Shahrukh Khan
sitting proudly in a bath tub decorated by rose petals and
surrounded by four Bollywood divas Hema Malini, Juhi
Chawla, Sridevi and Kareena Kapoor, for Lux soap in
2006.
DO BOOND ZINDAGI KI (2006
ONWARDS)
In 2007, Idea Cellular came up with its “What an idea,
sir ji” campaign. The first ad in the series where mobile
numbers were used as replacements for people’s name
in a village, was well received by the audience. The
basic theme was to focus on treating everyone as
equals. The social message was well delivered and what
followed was a number of ads in the series-Education
for all, Walk and Talk, Save Paper, Save Tree etc.
In 2007. Tata Tea’s “Jaago Re” campaign aimed at
awakening the masses and alerting them to their
responsibilities as citizens. The campaign thus,
positioned the tea as means of truly awakening people.
IDEA 3G FUNNY AD CAMPAIGN - INDIA OVER
POPULATION - ABHISHEK BACHCHAN SIR JI AD
SERIES (2011)
Vodafone Zoozoos were created and the ads were
aired during the IPL season in 2009. Zoozoos
created an instant buzz both in traditional media
as well as the social networking sites like
Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.
Volkswagen created history in 2010 when in
association with The Times of India and The
Hindu, the company came up with a “The Talking
Newspaper’’ for the launch campaign of
Volkswagen Vento.
VODAFONE ZOOZOO
COMPILATIONS (2009)
