In 2002, legendary ad man Piyush Pandey partnered with his colleague Rajiv Rao to create the iconic ‘Second-hand smoke kills’ ad for Cancer Patients Aid Association. This campaign won India’s first double Gold at the Cannes Lions. Rao was also responsible for the ZooZoo and Pug advertising campaigns for Vodafone.
As Pandey is stepping into an advisory role and giving up his position as executive chairman of Ogilvy India, Storyboard18 caught up with Rao, who was the former national creative director of the agency, to understand Pandey’s influence in his career and more. Edited excerpts.
Do you recall your first meeting with Piyush?
When I got into advertising, Piyush was a celebrity for us. He still is. We used to go to award shows to see him. He is the reason why most of us joined Ogilvy. Seeing him sweep all the awards just made all of us want to work with him. I joined Ogilvy in 1999 with my partner V Mahesh from Ambience. We were hired by Bobby Pawar and Anil Batwal. Once Bobby, Anil, Mahesh and I were ideating on something, and in comes Piyush. I was really nervous to even strike up a conversation with him. Piyush was so warm and humble. It was truly a fanboy moment for me. It was almost like I had met the creative God.
Which was the first ad campaign that the both of you jammed together on?
The first time the both of us worked together was on the ‘Second-hand smoke kills’ campaign for Cancer Patients Aid Association. Piyush has this idea of showcasing a cowboy crying over a dead horse, with the line ‘Second-hand smoke kills’ alongside. When he told Mahesh and me this idea, to be very honest, I was a bit speechless. Piyush’s ideas are so unique that it takes a bit of time to process and understand. He asked me to start work on it. There was no deadline or a servicing person chasing you to deliver. That’s why I took my own sweet time. Six months to be precise. It was shot at a beach in Madh Island (on Mumbai’s outskirts) and was then worked upon using a stock background image.
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Every time Piyush met me he would remind me to work on and not let go of the idea. I had faced a lot of logistics issues executing this piece. Finally, I presented the visualisation and he gave a go-ahead at the first shot. If Piyush had not believed in the idea and not pushed me to do it, it wouldn’t have got the glory it deserved. He knew this was a winner right from the beginning.
You quit Ogilvy in 2017 when you are at the peak of your career. How difficult was it to convince Piyush?
It was very difficult. I was thinking of trying my hand at direction a few years before I decided to move on from Ogilvy. In no way was I going to join any other advertising agency, I was clear about that. Every time I went to Piyush and told him I wanted to move out, he would change the topic. He would tell me to try whatever I want being at the agency. At some point, I just wanted to take a break.
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He is the most encouraging boss I have ever had. He values every single person of the agency and will not let you go if he still thinks you have a lot more to explore. My personality is also such that I can’t make conversations, especially tough ones, easily. With Piyush it was even more difficult. However, when I really made that final decision, he understood where I was coming from, and didn’t stop me. Till date he is my cheerleader. He trusts his people, and that’s why everyone who has worked with him loves him.