``They are just trying to do something clever and make people laugh. Have you seen that ad, you open a refrigerator and the false teeth start chattering? Does one buy a fridge for that?'' he asked.

He also had some harsh words for the popular slogans of the day.``Refresh ho ja, Dil maange more--these do not last more than six months. They do not go beyond the surface,'' he said severely, shaking his head.

``You need to scratch below the surface and go on to the second reality. A product can mean a change in lifestyle. Actually not enough thinking is being done, not enough research,'' sniped Padamsee.

And then of course, the sharpest cut of all. ``Young people today think advertising is easy, and they feel that you do not need hard work and can make do with cleverness. That is why today's advertising is like ice cream, it melts away quickly,'' Padamsee said.

Deep thinking is the need of the hour, recommends Padamsee. ``One must get out of linear thinking and think in a mosaic. Call it lateral thinking or thinking out of the box,'' he said, waving his arms.

``When I did Liril, so many years ago--I thought beyond the soap--the bathroom. A place where the Indian housewife locks herself up for 10 minutes everyday, and it's the only time she has to herself. What does she think then? She thinks of escaping from everything. She is bindaas. That is how the Liril ad was born,'' says Padamsee, to prove that he isn't just preaching.

Today everything is ``trend-vertising'', said Padamsee, cleverly adding that ``good advertising has to be brand-vertising''. ``The brands that I build must live on after I am gone. Their lifespan must be more than mine,'' he stressed. After all, the MRF slogan `Tyres with muscles' was created by him thirty years ago, ``and it still works.''

Take heart, there are some ads he does appreciate. ``Everest masala-mix, where we have a mother-in-law dictating the details of the masala to be put in a preparation, while the bahu listens to a walkman and just uses the masala mix,'' he says. ``Here is an ad that shows how by using the product you can please your mother-in-law and at the same time be yourself. It shows the utility of the product.''

So the final gospel? ``We have to study human behaviour. How they walk, talk and what motivates them. Only when you observe keenly you get the insight, which then leads you to a great ad,'' says Padamsee who was in the city to help Emami with in their new launches.

In the end, he offers me some advice. ``As a journalist, always observe people keenly. Are they bold or are they shy, do they walk tall or do they slouch? When you write you will get your insights from these observations.'' I nod weakly, as I shyly slouch out of his fire-and-brimstone presence.