MCM: Ad katha extraordinaire

Even without matching these cult lines from MCM Mass Communication and Marketing to their provocative images what comes shining through Bold advocacy clever imagination leaps infectious joie de vivre high recall value The mid1960s to 1970s were undoubtedly a defining decade for Indian advertising And charismatic poetcopywriter Kersy Katrak reigned as acknowledged leader of the pack MCM the agency he opened in 1965 proved a remarkable cradle and catalytic base moulding industry legends well over the next halfcentury with the creative crosspollination that it spawnedKatrakrsquos daredevil approach to advertisingmdashas a business of the best ideasmdashattracted the cream of countrywide talent Fresh recruits ranged from the brightest MBA grads to the finest poets and writers The phenomenal roster rolled forth heavyweights like Ravi Gupta Arun Nanda Ajit Balakrishnan Mohammed Khan Sudarshan Dheer Veeru Hiremath Anil Kapoor Kiran Nagarkar Arun Kolatkar Panna Jain and Arun KaleThe ad announcing the opening of Vama department storemdashcopy by Kiran Nagarkar and illustrations by Arun KolatkarJust 29 when he stirred this compelling crucible Katrak believed the biggest risk was to take none His crew cocked a snook demolished rules changed the game irreverently and irrevocablyTraditional advertising had worked with little originality A client environment led by foreign firms merely substituted Indian models in templates created abroad Katrak sold nonmultinationals ads with compelling Indian metaphors They were drummed up with audacity and executed with ingenuity ldquoKersyrsquos genius brought lsquocreativersquo to the fore in Indian advertising The context he did this in is importantrdquo says Ajit Balakrishnan founder CEO of Rediffcom ldquoIn the mid1960s American advertising almost exclusively on Madison Avenue was influenced by social upheavalmdashantiVietnam War protests the coming of age of the Baby Boom an explosion of music with Bob Dylan the Rolling Stones and the Beatles Instead of the hard sell discountoriented phraseology of department store sales advertising leapt into visual symbolism and illusory copyrdquoMCM ads for Gold Spot and DCM TowelsMohammed Khan who went on to establish the iconic Enterprise Advertising was horrified on his return from England to find Indian advertising in a primitive stage ldquoPeople were unable to differentiate between a brief and an ad Except for Amul I worked with Sylvie daCunha before MCM Air India and the wonderful work of Frank Simoes a headline would typically be lsquoHeadache Take an Aspro or Anacinrsquohellip or whatever In this milieu MCM made a hugely visible impact It was that great creative shop where an awesome pool of talent Kersy had the eye to choose produced stunning visuals and copyrdquoKatrakrsquos righthand man Ravi Gupta came with a mining engineering degree from the UK His interest in advertising took off when a foundry planned by his family dealing in stainless steel did not Guptarsquos daughter Ritu Nanda says ldquoCombining strategy and creativity my father grew totally passionate about advertising MCM truly turned around brands They sang their ad lyrics at partiesmdashlsquoLivva little hotSippa Gold Spotrsquo or the Hindi lsquoJee bhar ke jiyoGold Spot piyorsquo while uncorking bottles It was fun and confident advertisingrdquo Gupta put MCM in the picture for environmental activist Bittu Sahgal then a 19yearold salesman ldquoThe agency was metamorphosing from lsquoselling spinrsquo to selling hardcore marketing strategy to owners of companies wanting yearend profits not empty image massagesrdquo says Sahgal appointed trainee accounts executive ldquoAkbar Hydarirsquos WIMCO the Mulchandanisrsquo Bush Radios Ramesh Chauhanrsquos Gold Spot and Rim Zim drinks even Susheel Somanirsquos risque Debonair magazine had Kersyrsquos genius stamped over them coupled with Panna Jainrsquos visualisation and Ravi Guptarsquos savvy mandimarket business senserdquoNagarkar Kolatkar and Bal Mundkur Pic Courtesy Tulsi VatsalBesides campaigns like Gold Spot cheerily challenging stiff competition in a completely Coca Cola world MCM pioneered certain forerunners of lifestyle advertising When 20 x 3 column ads were considered sizeable its art directors produced ads five times larger The Shaver Swish cartoon character conceptualised birthed animated heroes A raging hit Ramon Bonus Stamps marked a precursor to subsequent loyalty programmes Other popular campaigns included Morarjee Mills for which Jain conceived a fourpager experimenting with over 80 fonts Laxmi Vishnu Sarees IBM LIC Ciba Godfrey Phillips Grindwell Norton and DCM draping Maneka Gandhi in DCM towelsA celebrated copywriterart director duo in advertising history MCMrsquos Kiran Nagarkar and Arun Kolatkar pulled beautifully together Illustrator Kolatkar art director Jain and typographer Sudarshan Dheer were among the agencyrsquos first hires Their prioritised induction reflected Katrakrsquos vision Respecting the vital role artists played he accorded them distinctive statusldquoDeservedly when you think of someone like Arun draw lines on paperrdquo says Dilip Bhende an MCM accounts executive ldquoDoodling in less than five minutes he started at a particular point finished the job closed the pen Single stroke no back and forth moves Irsquove yet to see an art director deliver this way Uniqueness was fully encouraged A freespirited legsonthetable office atmosphere pushed out amazing thought The theatre guy he was that mirrored Kersyrsquos showmanship too of courserdquo Jain was introduced to Katrak at Mitter Bedirsquos photo studio ldquoWith no office we sat in Kersyrsquos car on Marine Drive There I designed the MCM logo on the back of a cigarette packrdquo he recalls Scouting for work from the first of three Colaba office addresses 14 Oliver Street they netted small assignments initiallyThe breakthrough came with publicising WIMCO match manufacturers Featured in halfpage ads of a national daily on nine consecutive days Jainrsquos powerful conceptualisation sprang from a stark black background Different hands seen striking matches to light a diya suggested theproductrsquos universality ldquoThe WIMCO campaign also introduced quartertone screen technique for sharp quality reproduction in print mediardquo observes creative director Arun Kale whom Jain spotted fresh from the JJ Institute of Art in 1967 ldquoIndian advertising would either adapt something from parent overseas counterparts for local acceptance or follow an ageold formula of lsquothe product copy logorsquo MCM was one of the first to break that concept Every piece of communication from its stable set trends They had a strong servicing team Many times Kersy himself headed the pitching with elanrdquo Describing Katrak as a true maverick his nephew Amul man Rahul daCunha recalls ldquoI must be in my early teens when I got a real understanding of the incredible myth and legend MCM was Kersy was a comet blazing the ad scene and revolutionising it He put the creative person above all else seeing him or her as the real binder of an agency Clients loved buying work from the creator It wasnrsquot some suit sitting before them to sell For the short while the agency was around before going into disrepute that advertising simply stood apart The philosophies of Trikaya Rediffusion and Enterprisemdashfor Ravi Gupta Arun Nanda and Mohammed Khanmdashcame out of MCM They were the Mad Men of their day To be in advertising you need to be slightly madrdquo Katrakrsquos daughter Maia founder chairman of The Republic agency was excited by the ambience as a child A procession of khadi kurtaclad gentlemen dropped by their ninthfloor house in Bakhtawar building below which lay the office ldquoThey sported long hair chainsmoked sipped drinks dispensed from my fatherrsquos antique bar had intense discussions The studio had a lot of men speaking Marathi I recently connected with Arun Kale who confirmed he and Arun Kolatkar were among them Irsquod run down after school because the office buzzed with energy MCM handled the Peppino soft drink brand Its film shot by a very young Prahlad Kakkar in our home had people dancing with abandon to the lsquoPeppepPeppinorsquo jingle Wearing bellbots and headbands they were hippie and WoodstockesquerdquoMuch of that flair and flamboyance dived into turbulence and the agencyrsquos eventual closure Overbudget extravagances and chronically pending payments triggered the sad slide a far cry from its meteoric soar Veterans describe the debacle in tones from kind to frankBalakrishnan traces the fall temperatelymdashldquoThe early 1970s brought economic crises Nearly 100 textile mills in Bombay the main advertisers cut costs MCM like other businesses of that time ran out of cash I and my colleagues Arun Nanda and Mohammed Khan decided to try our own luck with Rediffusion in 1973rdquoMore vocal on the issue Khan says ldquoFor all the brilliance MCM was a lesson in how not to run an ad business What could become the largest most profitable agency ended a real mess In the brief period we were there Ajit brought in financial discipline while Arun and I built a lot of credibility with clients Us being asked to leave was the last nail in MCMrsquos coffin I went ahead and started Rediffusion with Arun and AjitrdquoAccording to Sahgal ldquoThe world had changed Kersi had not A creative powerhouse he had no head for money MCM consequently went bankrupt But it ended up being the Mothership which launched the leading lights that dominated Indian advertising for decadesrdquoAuthorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay You can reach her at mehermarfatiamiddaycomwwwmeher marfatiacom