How advertising held a mirror to India where change was the only constant

LOOKING GLASS | As society transitioned, so too did our ads. From just mascots, ads changed to reflect the consumerism of the post-liberalisation era

There are many mirrors in which we can see our evolution in the 75 years that have gone by since Independence, and advertising is a particularly interesting one. For it tells us stories about how we wish to see ourselves, and with time it becomes a text in which we can see how we have evolved as a society.

In the early years, advertising played a minor role in our lives. It was a time when both consumption and media access were limited. There were still quite a few iconic campaigns, many using mascots as an easy way to gain memorability – the Murphy baby, the subject of much myth, the Zodiac man, and the Air India Maharaja whose witticisms, sometimes bordering on the risque, opened a new chapter in advertising, which another remarkable long-running campaign, Amul, has taken forward with even more memorability and longevity.

The 1960s and 70s were a time when the country eased up a little – popular cinema became more colourful and escapist, and advertising took on an element of fantasy. Consumption was limited to a small class and the popular campaigns tended to present even ordinary acts of consumption as exotic and glamorous. Liril relocated the bath from small bathrooms to a waterfall and history was made. Four Square cigarettes exhorted us to Live Life Kingsize. Nescafe showed a bunch of impossibly beautiful people riding a buggy while sipping coffee.

The ’80s and the first whiff of liberalisation is the time when the idea of the middle class got crystallised. Advertising helped create a more tangible idea of the consuming class, organising diverse constituencies under a common label. Several campaigns constructed the idea of a shared value system and helped give the middle class a coherent selfimage to hold on to. Perhaps the most memorable campaign of this kind was Hamara Bajaj, which struck a resonant note as it showed us vignettes of ourselves with unerring accuracy. VIP suitcases with its ‘Kal Bhi, Aaj Bhi’ subtly navigated between a nostalgic past and a modernising future. The ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’ campaign, while not selling any product, was another marker of this era, as it wrapped us all in a sense of shared goodwill.

As the first burst of local entrepreneurial energy hit the country, we saw many iconic campaigns that spoke with a new directness and urgency. Nirma burst on to the scene with a simplicity and force that sliced through our collective consciousness. Nothing captured the unvarnished hunger of an emerging class impatient to make a mark as did this brand with its unsophisticated but highly effective entry.

Rasna, with its ‘I love You, Rasna’ campaign featuring an adorable moppet was another brand that offered the middle class access to an experience that was otherwise not available to it. Vimal’s advertising was a counterpoint to the studied ‘gentlemanliness’ of other brands in the space featuring the Vimal Man who used more overt materialistic markers to broadcast his success.

The mid-90s saw the full force of Liberalisation hit us. There was a sense of optimism that advertising helped articulate. The Pepsi campaigns beginning with its launch, ‘Yeh Dil Maange More’ and ‘Nothing Official About It’ all in their own ways captured the unshackling of the spirit. The Cadbury’s Dairy Milk ad with its uninhibited female protagonist seemed to vividly echo a sentiment a large section of society felt.

The ’90s and early 2000s were the heyday of advertising. Television came into its own, and with it came a brand of storytelling as rooted as it was entertaining. There were many iconic ads of this time. Fevicol produced a series of memorable campaigns, each funnier than the last. Coca- Cola brought alive a new kind of protagonist, full of bravado and local wisdom in its ‘Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola’ series featuring Aamir Khan in different avatars. Happydent was perhaps the pinnacle of entertainment with its larger-than-life storytelling.

As the idea of consumption matured, we began to see a string of campaigns that strove to do more than just entertain. Brands began to take on the mantle of shaping society, if not through their actions then at least in advertising depictions. Tata Tea with its ‘Jaago Re’ campaign was an early mover, exhorting us to take a more active role in society. Ariel’s ‘Share the Load’ campaign attempted to correct the imbalance in the household ties between the genders. Tanishq’s remarriage ad sensitively broke a social taboo by depicting a woman with a child getting married again.

Through the years, advertising has been a fascinating document of the changes women have gone through. From a time when ads showed women as mother and wife playing the role of the nurturer, or drew largely on their appearance – the classic Lux campaign that over the years featured glamorous film stars being a case in point – several iconic campaigns have striven to create new archetypes that reflect and even nudge forward changes in society.

Notable campaigns include Surf’s Lalitaji featuring a woman who drew respect for mind rather than her appearance, the Cadbury’s Dairy Milk ad showed a woman comfortably expressing herself uninhibitedly in public, the Ericsson phones ad that represented a steely executive cutting a self-important man down to size, Airtel’s recent campaign that showed a woman as her husband’s boss at work, Ariel’s ‘Share the Load’ campaign that pushed for a more equitable sharing of household responsibilities – these have all played their role in changing the narrative around gender.

With the arrival of the internet, advertising has lost some of its universality. As we retreat into our own little affairs with the small screens that govern all aspects of our life, advertising is no longer the shared text it once was. But for the first 75 years after Independence, it was the soundtrack to the little moments of our everyday life and it has a fascinating story to tell.