AD Agencies
Partha Sinha in the Effie HongKong Grand Jury
Mumbai: Partha Sinha, President of the Times of India group, was the only international face in the recently concluded grand jury meeting of Effie HK. The Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies of Hong Kong (HK4As) is the organiser and presenter of the Effie Awards in Hong Kong and has been doing so since 2004.
Other than Partha following four marketing experts were members of the grand jury.
1. Andreas Moellmann (independent brand and marketing consultant)
2. Eva Ng (global director of brand strategy, Schneider Electric)
3. Jason Spencer (managing director, Kantar Insights Hong Kong)
and
4. Lambert Chan (adjunct professor, City University of Hong Kong)
DDB Group Hong Kong’s ‘Unbroken’, for Hagar International, won the Grand Effie.
Talking of the experience, Partha said, “ It’s very interesting for an Effie to get an international jury member for the grand Effie. Grand Effie judging is the only place where some meaningful discussion takes place about the work from that market and about the award winning cases. HK could be a small market, but there are some great thought provoking pieces of work from that market. The Grand Effie winning case worked on cultural authority and hence got some disproportionate traction in the marketplace. For me, personally, it was an enriching experience”
AD Agencies
Fevicol releases its last ad campaign by the late Piyush Pandey
The adhesive brand’s last campaign by the late advertising legend Piyush Pandey turns an everyday Indian obsession into a quietly powerful metaphor
MUMBAI: Fevicol has never needed much of a plot. A sticky bond, a wry observation, a truth that every Indian instantly recognises — that has always been enough. “Kursi Pe Nazar,” the brand’s latest television commercial, is no different. And yet it carries a weight that no previous Fevicol film has had to bear: it is the last one its creator, the advertising legend Piyush Pandey, will ever make.
The film, released on Tuesday by Pidilite Industries, fixes its gaze on the kursi — the chair — and what it means in Indian life. Not just as a piece of furniture, but as a currency of ambition, a vessel of authority, and a source of quiet social drama that plays out in every home, office and institution across the country. Who sits in the chair, who waits for it, and who eyes it hungrily from across the room: the film transforms this sharply observed cultural truth into a narrative that is, in the best Fevicol tradition, funny, warm and instantly familiar.
The campaign was Pandey’s idea. He discussed it in detail with the team before his death, but did not live to see it shot. Prasoon Pandey, director at Corcoise Films who helmed the commercial, said the team needed five months to find its footing before they felt ready to shoot. “This was the toughest film ever for all of us,” he said. “It was Piyush’s idea, magical as always.”
The emotional weight of that responsibility was not lost on the team at Ogilvy India, which created the campaign. Kainaz Karmakar and Harshad Rajadhyaksha, group chief creative officers at Ogilvy India, described the process as “a pilgrimage of sorts, on the path that Piyush created not just for Ogilvy, but for our entire profession.”
Sudhanshu Vats, managing director of Pidilite Industries, said the film was rooted in a distinctly Indian insight. “The ‘kursi’ symbolises aspiration, transition, and ambition,” he said. “Piyush Pandey had an extraordinary ability to elevate such everyday observations into iconic storytelling for Fevicol. This film carries that legacy forward.”
That legacy is considerable. Over several decades, Pandey’s partnership with Fevicol produced some of the most beloved advertising in Indian history, building the brand into something rare: a household name that people actively enjoy watching sell to them.
“Kursi Pe Nazar” does not try to be a tribute. It simply tries to be a great Fevicol film. By most measures, it succeeds — which is, in the end, the most fitting send-off of all.
