AD Agencies
Adman Diwan Arun Nanda, co-founder of Rediffusion, passes away
MUMBAI: Diwan Arun Nanda, one of Indian advertising’s towering figures and co-founder of the agency Rediffusion, passed away this week in Mumbai. He was 76.
Born in 1948, Nanda cut his teeth at Hindustan Lever after graduating as a gold medallist from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. His early work included the lightning-bolt logo for Rin detergent, which seared itself into household memory.
In 1973, with Ajit Balakrishnan and Mohammed Khan, he set up Rediffusion, thumbing his nose at the global giants then ruling the market. A coup soon came with Eveready’s transistor-battery campaign—“The chosen one”—that announced the firm’s creative muscle.
Over the next decades Nanda steered Rediffusion into the premier league, wooing clients from telecoms to fast-moving consumer goods. His fame rested not just on catchy slogans but on fierce integrity. When a magazine failed to deliver on claims hyped in its ads, he promptly gave up the account, unwilling to mislead.
Nanda’s reach went well beyond Madison Avenue. He advised prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in the 1980s, forged a tie-up with Young & Rubicam, and sat on the boards of Air India, Eveready, Kingfisher Airlines and Yes Bank. Colleagues remember him as a demanding mentor who valued clarity and principles as much as creativity.
“Rediffusion’s journey was a dream run,” he once said. His death marks the close of an era in Indian advertising—an era of audacity, pride in home-grown talent, and the rare refusal to compromise.
AD Agencies
Publicis Brazil’s creative chief Mauro Ramalho lands the jury chair at Abby Awards 2026
Mauro Ramalho brings 25 years of global advertising firepower to the new creative commerce, use of data and B2B category at Goafest
GOA: The Abby Awards 2026, powered by The One Club and The One Show, has appointed Mauro Ramalho, chief creative officer of Publicis Brazil, as jury chair for its newly launched creative commerce, use of data and B2B category. The announcement, made on 18 March, signals the awards’ intent to bring serious international muscle to a category that sits squarely at the intersection of creativity and commercial performance.
Ramalho is not a name that needs much introduction in global advertising circles. Over 25 years spanning three countries, he has worked at some of the industry’s most creatively restless addresses. At AKQA in San Francisco, he worked across McDonald’s, Nike, Fox, Target, Kraft Foods and GAP, and helped lead “The Lost Ring” for McDonald’s, one of the first alternate reality campaigns and among the most awarded projects of its era. He later moved to Organic in Toronto, bridging the Detroit and Toronto offices on Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler, before spending over a decade building CUBOCC into one of Brazil’s most iconic and innovative independent agencies, which subsequently joined the IPG network.
A stint at FCB followed, where Ramalho led integrated work bridging online and offline, before he joined R/GA São Paulo as vice-president and executive creative director, stitching together the São Paulo office with New York, London, Portland and California on global clients including Verizon, Google, Meta, Samsung, American Express and Heineken. He now heads Publicis Brazil as its chief creative officer.
His trophy cabinet includes Clios, Effies, TikTok awards and MMA Smarties, and he has served on juries at the Andys, TikTok and the Lisbon Awards.
The Abby Awards 2026 is scheduled to take place at Goafest 2026 on 20, 21 and 22 May in Goa.
For Indian advertising, landing a jury chair of Ramalho’s calibre for a category built around data-driven creativity and commerce is a statement of ambition. Goafest just raised its own bar.
