Piyush Pandey – A light that will never dim

You are the AdMan of India.

You often claimed that you were “born in a creative factory” Maybe true. But more than that, what you built became a whole creative nation.

From dusty pitches in Rajasthan to the buzzing halls of your agency. You played every game in sport or in strategy the same way. With heart. With fairness. With full effort.

You found ideas in real life. Tea corners, rickety buses, railway stations, where India breathes and lives. You showed us that the carpenter, the cobbler and the bus conductor could be our best teachers in advertising.

You taught us many things:

• To never let the child inside us grow up.
• To see clients not as logos but as people with stories.
• To ignore the spreadsheets once in a while and just listen to life.

At your agency, you built a culture along with campaigns. You proved Indian creativity did not need translation. It needed the truth. And even in your parting, you’ve left one final brief:

• Keep storytelling humans and keep curiosity alive. 
• Let the next big idea maybe come from a game of cricket or a walk down an Indian street.

The Man with Moustache

Piyush Pandey was born on September 5, 1955, in Jaipur. He joined Ogilvy in 1982. He gradually rose to become worldwide Chief Creative Officer and Executive Chairman (India). His journey reflected the belief that says ideas do not come from somewhere else but from everywhere and everyone.

He once said, “You do not need to be sitting in an air-conditioned room to find a great idea. Just step out and listen.”

That simple line became his life’s philosophy and the heartbeat of Indian advertising.

The Voice of a Culture

He did not just write ads. He wrote emotions. He gave us slogans that became part of our everyday lives.

• “Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai” for Asian Paints.
• “Fevicol ka Mazboot Jod Hai, Tootega Nahi” for Fevicol
• “Kuch Khaas Hai” for Cadbury Dairy Milk.
• “Ab ki baar, Modi sarkar” for Narendra Modi’s 2014 campaign.

Each line was a cultural moment. He brought the voice of India from villages, railway platform and chai stalls into the heart of advertising. His words were made for people.

The Fevicol bus that stuck India together

In the mid-1990s, Fevicol was simply an adhesive brand. Typical ads showed two blocks of wood stuck together. Piyush Pandey looked at it and thought that “where’s the life behind the glue?” 

So, he asked himself that what if we do not just show strength, but surprise? He imagined a workshop, a bird, eggs, and a moment where something broke. Except the ‘bond’ doesn’t. In the ad, a carpenter tries everything to break an egg coated with Fevicol. Even a hammer fails. Eventually the egg cracks the earthen pot instead. The message conveys that this is not just strong glue, but it is virtually unbreakable.

He explained later that an iconic ad is not written. You just write the best thing you can. When people fall in love with it, it becomes iconic.

His thought process was using everyday scenes (a carpentry shop, a cooking pan, an egg) to communicate a bold brand promise. No jargon. No gadget shots. Just real life made remarkable. That campaign turned Fevicol into a metaphor.

Cadbury’s “Kuch Khaas Hai” Change-Up

When Mr. Piyush took on the brief for Cadbury Dairy Milk, chocolate in India was largely seen as a treat for children or a luxury. He said that let’s make it universal and let’s make it about joy and everyday celebration.

In the final film, a group of colleagues celebrates after a tough week. The camera pans to the girl dancing on the cricket field, the crowd cheering, chocolate in hand. The tagline was “Kuch Khaas Hai” which means something special. This showed that it is not just for kids. Not just for one moment. But for everyone who has a reason to feel special.

At the heart of his thinking, rather than showing the chocolate bar, show what the chocolate means. The joy. The bonding. The shared moment. He believed people would remember how they felt more than what they saw. That shift made Cadbury part of the culture and not just a shelf product.

The Idea Behind the Telecom Pug

In the early 2000s, telecom ads were filled with specs, big words and phrases like “network this,” “coverage that.” Piyush Pandey decided to flip that. He thought that what if we don’t talk technology, we talk trust? 

Enter the pug. A dog follows a boy everywhere in schools, studios and malls. No phone shown and hardly any brand mentions. The idea was “Wherever you go, our network follows.” Simple. Emotional. Memorable.

His insight was that people don’t remember data or megahertz. But they remember loyalty, friendship and unexpected companions. That campaign turned a network into a companion and technology into a bond.

For the Maestro

In the factory of ideas you stood,
with a heart of clay and a vision so good.
From the fields where you played under skies of dust,
to the screens where your stories earned our trust.

You wove colors of hope in city and lane,
spoke in street-sounds, in laughter, in rain.
Not for the shine of a spotlight’s glare,
but for the whisper of truth in the everyday air.

And though your voice may rest in a silent room,
your ideas will blossom and your creativity will bloom.
For when the next poster is hung by a hand,
your spirit will echo across this land.

His work will always live on

He made brands feel like people and messaging feel like memories. His work was a voice that belonged to the street, the station, the everyday Indian moment. And when he left, he passed the baton to all of us who told stories.

For us at Granth, the belief that “stories are everywhere” came alive in his work. We are inspired to treat every brand’s voice not as a logo but as a person with a story.

From now on, every time we sit down to write, translate, design or brand… we will hear that, “look beyond the brief, listen to the life.”

Final Farewell

The world may celebrate many great advertisers. But there will never be another Piyush Pandey. He is the man who taught us to sell without selling, to speak without sounding scripted and to dream without boundaries.

He taught an entire generation that creativity does not need an accent. It needs authenticity. Brands do not need glamour, they need grounding.

To his family, his friends, his colleagues and everyone touched by his craft… his legacy is not just in the ads we see but in the way we now think about ideas.

He changed Indian advertising and made it Indian.

And for that, Piyush Pandey, thank you.
For every frame.
For every line.
For every story you helped tell.

May your legacy keep inspiring every writer, every brand and every storyteller who believes that creativity begins with being human.