Ad land’s Young Guns: Shilpa Chaudhary, Havas India

Shilpa Chaudhary, a Copywriter with Havas India, won laurels at Goafest 2017 along with her colleague Ayushi Rastogi for their multimedia campaign aimed at mitigating gender violence. The campaign was launched by Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi, on April 7, 2017 at the Goafest. The winning campaign has been funded for production by The Advertising Club (TAC) and the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and released by media agency GroupM. 

Prior to Havas India, Chaudhary was a Media Alliance Trainee (Business Wire India) with Hill+Knowlton Strategies, where she “plucked out all the errors from the trials in this role. Fortunately for me, the trial process gave in”. 

What does it takes to climb up the ladder in advertising? Here’s Shilpa Chaudhary in her own words... 

How did you get into the role you are serving?
In my quest to go to Mumbai, I happened to get swayed by Advertising. It has been polite and therapeutic till now, which can suffice as a compensation enough for operating out of Gurugram. 

What particular skill sets do you think you bring to the table?
Unpredictability. If an idea doesn’t unsettle me or the reader, then it’s just going to be embroidered trash. 

One campaign that you have worked on that you are particularly proud of? Please take us through the making of the campaign.
The campaign – ‘Par’ – is based upon doing away with justifications towards violence. The thought behind the idea lies in the simplicity by which the phenomenon of Stockholm Syndrome was challenged and the abused was attempted to be made aware that violence of any sort “Par” (which means “But” in Hindi) is not justified. 

The campaign started out as a poster one, eventually translated into a television commercial and further going on to other mediums. The magnitude of the cause which the campaign represents is of immense significance and nothing would give more joy than to see women facing abuse taking a stand and bringing it tough on their abusers. 

While working on the creatives how do you prepare yourself? What goes on in your mind?
Take a back seat and let the thread of thoughts waver about and around. Linger around some thoughts, discard others. Pushing half-formed ideas to completed ones turns them into flaccid stubborn ones. Hence, the intent is to give some space and observe, eventually the solution does justice to the creative. 

Icons in advertising you look up to and how they have influenced you and your work?
George Burns, Bill Bernbach, Indra Sinha, Neil French. I am sure there is a word limit to this one. It is Woody Allen’s ‘Midnight in Paris’ being replicated on so many levels when it comes to being influenced. 

What are the five most productive things that you do in your everyday routine?
Flipping with Ashtanga, taking an indecent overdose of everything art - copy - melodrama, attempting to keep updated with the three thousand profiles of rich galore I follow on Instagram and attempting to manage to do the aforestated at least partial justice. Employing more energy into attempting to be productive will sap away any iota of productivity left. 

Do you think a career in advertising is a viable one in the long term?
Considering the notion of most elements being in a state of flux, as of present I refer to Advertising as my therapy. If it continues to be the untangling, constantly altering and yet, balance providing force, then from subjective inclinations I would advocate a long term career in advertising as conceivable. 

What does it take to succeed in a career like advertising?
Resilience, stamina and layers of grit. Also, love. 

What would be your advice to youngsters planning to enter this industry?
That means I must be advising myself and that wouldn’t be too advisable. 

Where do you see yourself in five year’s time?
Moderately content with the work I have flushed out in terms of deploying innovative means to craft creatives. To get the record straight, flushed out and not flush away. 

Is there any agency/ organisation that you would like to work with in the future?
Droga5.