I wish I had made these
N Padmakumar wishes that he had done the old Maruti Ladakh service station TV ad. ?Its simplicity and lucidity reminds one again and again of how sharp television advertising can be,? he says.
?I also wish I?d done the Tata Tea Jaago Re campaign amongst the recent ones. I think the bigness of the idea rises above the category and occupies a higher, nobler ground ? a great place to be for any brand,? he adds.
Thank god, it isn?t me
He does not like Lijjat Papad and Happydent ?Moon? ads. He says, ?I?m glad I didn?t do the Lijjat Papad ad (phew) and in recent times, the Happydent ?Moon? ad. The amount of irritation these ads have caused in their respective eras is legendary, and I?m grateful not to be on the credit roster of either.?
My first ad
Talking about his experience during the making of his first commercial, Padmakumar says, ?My first TV ad (a promo for Liril) was pretty memorable for a bizarre reason. I was mistaken for one of Prahlad Kakkar?s flunkies and sent off on a prop hunting junket. I thought that was routine, and went scurrying away with Rs 10,000 in my pocket. When I came back, there was Sophie Sivaraman holding her face in her hands with an aghast expression, and I was pampered like a baby for the rest of the shoot.?
N Padmakumar was moved to Rediffusion Y&R from its sister agency Everest Brand Solutions in November 2010. He was appointed as national creative director (NCD) to partner with Minakshi Achan but is now the only NCD as Achan had quit a few months back to start her own venture.
In his early career, he worked with Lowe Lintas on brands like Lifebuoy, Liril, Breeze and Rexona and on the launch of Britannia Tiger biscuits.
After this, he had a brief stint at MTV where he conceptualized and launched ?Fully Faltoo? which is still on air, ?Gone Case?, and the new MTV Classic show, besides having worked on MTV Bakra and other shows. He then moved to Lintas Sri Lanka as ECD. He led Lintas Sri Lanka to win the ?Agency of the year? award two years in a row and also won the ?Creative Person of the Year? award. He moved back to India when he joined Lowe Delhi as creative head on the LG business.
He then joined McCann Worldgroup Sri Lanka as executive creative director. He came back to India thereafter, joining Lowe Bombay where he worked on brands like ICICI Bank, the Clinic Haircare range, Vim, Domex, ACC Cement and Bharat Petroleum. Then he joined Everest Brand Solutions as its NCD and has worked there for about four years. At Everest, he partnered with its president D. Rajappa (now president, Rediffusion Y&R) in winning new businesses such as ACC Cement, Indian Overseas Bank, Tata Housing, Writer Corporation, Emami and T-Series among others.
His overall portfolio includes HSBC, ICICI, Cathay Pacific, Unilever, Nestle, Coke, Chevron, Parle, Britannia, BPCL, Pizza Hut, Tata, Zandu, Emami, IOB, LIC, Dulux, Singer, LG, CNN-IBN, Singapore Government, Dialog, Mobitel, and Airtel. He also ran his own production house for a year and a half and has written and directed a TV spot for Tsunami Aid played on BBC, CNN, and other major stations.