"I hope 'Nawabs, Nudes, Noodles' will become India's 'Ogilvy on Advertising'": Ambi Parameswaran on his new book

MG Parameswaran's eighth book is out. We spoke to him about 'Nawabs, Nudes, Noodles'.

'Nawabs, Nudes, Noodles - India through 50 years of Advertising'. A rather sensational title, that. Psst: It was going to be 'Jo biwi se kare pyaar', inspired by the famous catchphrase hatched by pressure cooker brand Prestige, back in the day. But the current one is far more catchy. Besides, alliterations thrill the author.

In a nutshell, the book is about India as seen through the advertising lens. It's about how advertising is, and has been, mirroring and shaping Indian society.

And shape, it does. "Surf's 'Lalitaji' ad preceded the serial Rajani on Doordarshan... it wasn't the other way around, as many seem to think," author MG Parameswaran, who goes by Ambi, reminds us, referencing actor Priya Tendulkar's character by the same name, in the popular 1980s serial, that resembles Surf's penny wise housewife.

As for mirroring - why do you think so many ads today are about harbouring a strong sense of individualism and being oneself, no matter the cost? It's the tenet Gen-Y - every second brand's core TG - lives by.

Ambi, former CEO and executive director (and subsequently, advisor), FCB Ulka, has over 35 years of industry experience. Today, he spends his time consulting with brands and teaching at IIM Calcutta. His clients hail from the healthcare, food retail and consumer products space; he also mentors several start-ups, run by 20-somethings looking for professional guidance. They respectfully call him "Uncle."

From leading a mainstream advertising agency to being a consultant and chronicler of Indian advertising, how much has life changed for Ambi? "After moving out of Ulka, I could have easily put my shoes up and relaxed. But I wanted to use my knowledge and talent in a meaningful way," he says, nevertheless admitting that today he has "no head ache of meeting bottom line targets, client pressures, billing and collection reviews, tension of deadlines... I love reading, writing and teaching and that's what I'm doing now..."

This is Ambi's eighth book; previous titles include 'For God's Sake' (most recent), 'Strategic Brand Management' (with Kevin Lane Keller and Isaac Jacob), 'DraftFCB + Ulka: Brand Building Advertising - Case Book II' (with Kinjal Medh), 'Ride the Change: A perspective on the Changing Indian Consumer, Market and Marketing', 'Building Brand Value: Five Steps to Building Powerful Brands', 'Understanding Consumers: Building Powerful Brands Using Consumer Research' and 'FCB-Ulka - Brand Building Advertising: Concepts and Cases'.

Most of these books have a strong academic, 'B2B' flavour, best suited for B-schoolers. With
For God's Sake (2014)
, Ambi forayed into a more anecdotal, conversational style of writing, widening his readership.

Would he call 'Nawabs, Nudes, Noodles' his most 'massy' attempt yet? The book, he says, is a balance between what the experienced adman/adwoman would like to read and what the young expect from a book of this kind.

"People of my 'vintage' are enjoying this book. It is very 'nostalgic'," says the 61-year-old, who hopes this "agency-neutral" book will become "de rigueur reading" for anyone entering Indian ad land. He hopes it will become for India what 'Ogilvy on Advertising' is, internationally. He has, and consciously so, "not dumbed anything down," in this book.

In the book, he has referenced several old ads (see images) and discussed how they reflect the psychology of the consumer of their respective eras. "Some ads become part of the cultural context of a nation, some just do their job of selling the product and disappear," Ambi smiles.

We asked him about the way brands today are trying too hard, if you will, to earn social currency. Take the recent wave of LGBT-themed ads, for instance. "Online brands desperately want to become part of social conversation. Nothing wrong with it. But is it sustainable? Can they continue espousing the cause/s they take on?" cautions Ambi, recalling a phase not too long ago, during which brands obsessively made ads around people with physical disabilities.

So 'equality marketing', as some experts dub it, could easily be a passing phase, feels Ambi. Does being part of social conversation lead to brand salience and trial? That's the question brands ought to ask themselves before riding any temporary wave, goes his advice. "When Tanishq spoke about re-marriage, it did so not in an esoteric manner... wedding jewellery is part of its core offering," he asserts.

Among problems plaguing the industry as it stands today, Ambi mentions the over-use of celebrities, the surge of digital-only ad films that don't appear on TV ("...some product manager fooling around with a few lakh rupees; these ads don't even get senior management attention..."), and the baffling advent of digital-led brands (e-commerce, for instance) advertising on traditional mediums like print and TV.

Which segments, in Ambi's view, are best suited to capture the changes transpiring in society today - 'new age' categories like mobile wallets, app-based services and dot coms or brands that belong to 'traditional' categories like soap, tea and apparel?

"Traditionally, ads for consumer products reflected societal changes. Then ads for services like telecom and the BFSI segment did so... we are becoming more smartphone oriented, so may be mobile-based segments will reflect the ethos, going forward," he answers. Healthcare and financial services - "highly under-represented categories" - are two segments he's keeping an eye on.

He adds, on a tangent, "In India, consumer culture matured very rapidly. In other countries it look 60-70 years but we saw a rapid change in a very short span - 20-25 years. I'm not sure whether that pace will continue in the days ahead."

Published by Macmillan, 'Nawabs, Nudes, Noodles' has 301 pages.

Brand guru Santosh Desai, MD and CEO, Futurebrands India, will discuss the book with Ambi, at a conference, at Mumbai's Godrej India Culture Lab, at 5 pm, today.