24 October
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Remembering Piyush Pandey and the stories that stayed with India.
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Thank You for the Ads We Still Remember
Remembering Piyush Pandey and the stories that stayed with India.
“Kuch khaas hai hum sabhi mein.”
Did you read it—or did you hear it?
Perhaps you saw a girl dancing on a cricket field, celebrating as if the entire stadium belonged to her. Perhaps you remembered a bus full of passengers, a familiar tune playing on television, or an advertisement that made everyone in the living room laugh.
You may not remember what programme you were watching. But you remember the advertisement.
That is the curious thing about some advertising. It finds a place in our lives without asking for one.
On 24 October, as we mark the first anniversary of Piyush Pandey’s passing, we revisit the work that made millions of Indians smile, laugh and recognise a little of themselves on screen.
Not because these advertisements sold products alone, but because they gave us stories worth remembering.
We Called Him the Godfather of Indian Advertising
Piyush Pandey had a remarkable understanding of how India spoke, laughed and lived.
His advertising did not always need grand settings or elaborate explanations. It found its stories in familiar places, everyday characters, shared humour and the little things people recognised from their own lives.
Today, we often discuss advertising through reach, recall, engagement and conversion. His work reminds us of something else: the rare ability of a brand to become part of people’s memories.
Consider a few advertisements that continue to bring those memories back.
Fevicol: the joke we happily watched again
“Fevicol ka mazboot jod hai, tootega nahin.”
And then that impossible bus: passengers everywhere, a bumpy journey, and everyone somehow staying together.
Even before we understood advertising, we understood the joke.
Asian Paints: the walls that knew us
“Har ghar kuch kehta hai.”
The campaign gave us a way to think about those spaces. Our homes carried traces of the people living inside them.
Cadbury: a little permission to be happy
Remember the girl who ran onto the cricket field to dance after a moment of sporting triumph?
The chocolate belonged to that moment of happiness. Watching it could make you smile before you had thought about buying anything.
That connection between a product and a feeling worth returning to is part of what made the campaign so memorable.
Somewhere in that childhood soundtrack, Amul
“Amul doodh peeta hai India.”
A tune returns, and suddenly so does a kitchen, a school morning, a glass of milk.
Amul belongs to the broader advertising memories many of us grew up with, rather than the campaign credits being celebrated here.
Thank you, Piyush
We may remember very little about the programmes between those advertisements.
The ads gave us moments of amusement, affection and uncomplicated happiness. Their ideas were clear enough to travel; their details were familiar enough to feel ours.
Piyush Pandey leaves that extraordinary gift behind: work people can still welcome into their lives.
Thank you for giving us so much to smile about and so much we still remember.
Sources: Ogilvy’s Piyush Pandey tribute; Asian Paints campaign retrospective; Gems campaign reporting. Amul is included as broader advertising nostalgia, without attribution to Pandey.
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