India @75: When Raj Kamble fell in love with Indian advertising all over again

As India gears up to celebrate her 75th year of Independence, we at Adgully are tracing the journey of Advertising and its contribution to the Indian society at large – whether it is bringing about a change in mindsets, or a societal pattern, or empowering different communities or ushering in new thoughts – basically, Soch badal ke rakh diya.

Our aim is to collate 75 most impressive and significant ways in which Advertising has impacted India over the decades. For this, we are reaching out to the Advertising Honchos of India to share the most significant contributions of Advertising to the Indian society and why they consider them to be important developments. We will serialise the story on Adgully’s website in the lead-up to the Independence Day this year in this special series: India @75 – Through the Advertising Lens.

“It is the job of the advertising business to always represent and lead the sentiment of the nation. And that’s why we need to stay two steps ahead,” remarks Raj Kamble, Founder and CCO, Famous Innovations, in an email interaction with Adgully.

If you go to any country, you can tell what the mood of the nation is by its advertising. Kamble notes, “Ads define what’s happening culturally, what political changes are underway, how progressive a country is and its design sensibilities.”

He goes on to talk about when he lived in London and New York, when he had always followed Indian advertising keenly. He reminisces, “One day, a friend of mine, an Indian girl living in New York, forwarded an ad to me and said, after seeing this ad, she felt like moving back to India. Till that day, the perception of India in her mind (growing up in the US) was that India is a little ‘behind’ times and I wondered what could one ad do to change that?”

The ad was Tanishq’s ‘Second Marriage’ film. The ad challenged norms, culture, status quo. “I remember feeling, ‘Wow! how did the client buy this ad?’ Then I found out Gauri Shinde directed the ad and she really got the Indian ethos in the ad. Considering the significance of weddings in our country, it did not lose on any of the necessary traditional or celebratory cues of a wedding while portraying such a modern thought.”

“The beauty was that I then shared the ad with a lot of American friends, but they didn’t get it. And I realised, this ad would only work in India and it made me fall in love with Indian advertising all over again,” Kamble adds.