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I joined Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (Amul) in 1991 as a brand manager and one of my first assignments was working in the advertising department. While taking over my predecessor’s responsibilities, I had to meet our advertising agencies. DaCunha Communications (DCA) were responsible for the branding of many of our products like butter, cheese, milk, Nutramul, etc. I travelled to Bombay and while walking past Nariman Point, I ventured into the DCA office and met the legendary Sylvester daCunha for the first time.
He was a quiet man who never minced his words. He never shied away from a challenge, and I think this spirit was truly reflected in the Amul Girl. He was her voice and her spirit, and generations of our consumers have been witness to this since 1966 when she first appeared on a hoarding.
At Amul, we believe there exists a trinity of leaders — Tribhuvandas Patel, the founding chairman, H M Dalaya, the dairy specialist, and Verghese Kurien, the technocrat who was responsible for building this organisation.
Similarly, in Amul’s advertising too, we had a trinity of doyens like K Kurian of Radeus Advertising, J N Chatterjee of ASP and Sylvester daCunha of DCA, later joined by Anil Kapoor of Ulka.
The “utterly butterly” Amul campaign by daCunha created a unique image of our brand in the minds of millions of our customers over four generations. His contributions to Amul have shaped the narrative of the nation. Before the phrase “The nation wants to know” became famous, he and his team, Eustace Fernandes and Usha Katrak, were the true voice of the nation. They spoke through the Amul Girl. Today, we have India’s entire journey over five decades chronicled through our Amul Topical campaign.
When Kurien met daCunha in the 1950s and gave him the mandate to work on the Amul Butter campaign, the latter found the category boring. He argued that if we can challenge the norm in advertising, we will make headway. One of the first challenges was to get the communication correct. Amul Butter, in its earlier campaigns from the 1950s, had the slogan “Purely the best”. DaCunha then revised it to “Utterly Butterly Delicious”. It was coined by Nisha daCunha, Sylvester’s wife. It was not grammatically correct, but it reflected the innocence of a child who spoke her mind.
In our coffee table book, Amul India, Sylvester daCunha shares his memories of working on the very first hoarding. There were many factors to consider while creating the Amul Girl. Bombay in the 1950s and ’60s had a huge influx of international butter brands. There was also an Indian brand called Polson Butter with a British girl mascot. Eustace Fernandes and daCunha worked on various designs and finally agreed on a small Indian girl who had round eyes, chubby cheeks and no nose, wearing a red polka dot dress and bow tie around her hair. They wanted to create a girl who would weave her way into a housewife’s heart. Today, she has a place in every Indian’s heart. The campaign was so successful that all other brands had to shut shop and India found its Indian Butter.
Kurien and daCunha were innovators. The first video advertisement featuring the Amul Girl was shown in cinemas in 1969. Her presence was felt in every media as it evolved from hoardings to the cinema, to press, TV and social media. Through this entire journey, one thing stood apart from every other campaign. The Amul Topical creatives have never been reviewed or approved by us in the last 50+ years. Even today, we see them at the same time as they are released in the media. This is perhaps the only agency in the world that can do so, and the credit for earning the trust of the client goes to ad man daCunha.
Kurien trusted daCunha and this faith in him enabled freedom that provided the right environment to create the longest-running billboard campaign in the world. Today, we continue to keep the same trust in Rahul daCunha and his team who will take his father’s legacy to greater heights.
The campaign has rendered itself well to social media and so it also gets an immediate response, which is a challenge for any client and agency. From a couple of topicals per month which appeared on billboards in the early days, the frequency has now increased to three to four per week.
Today, we stand indebted to the hard work of these great men who created a legacy on which we are building the future of our nation. Amul is a cooperative brand which is owned by 3.6 million farmers and is the largest FMCG brand with an annual sales turnover of Rs 72,000 crore.
Over the last 32 years at Amul, I have made many fond memories and felt honoured to be working here. But the one thing I will always carry with me will be the honour of being a part of the team that is responsible for the Amul Girl campaign, and I thank Sylvester daCunha for creating her, nurturing her and creating space for her in every Indian’s heart and a place on every breakfast table.
We will miss you, Sir.
The writer is managing director at the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd, Amul
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