I wish I had made these

The two ads that Santosh Padhi, aka Paddy, wishes he had done include the Fevicol-Train commercial featuring Katrina Kaif and The Times of India ‘Nakka Mukka’ (A Day in the Life of Chennai) ad. Talking about the Fevicol TV ad, he says, ?After a few years of communicating the physical effect of the glue, the brand took a leap by taking it to another level. The story-telling was very refreshing and the casting was outstanding. I loved the typical shaadi (wedding) music which was used as the background track. This is one of the Fevicol ads which is still stuck in my head, even after eight years.?

He adds, ?The Nakka Mukka ad has outstanding music. It is not an easy film to shoot and make it look real. When I first saw the film, I never realised that it was actually shot. I always thought stock footage was used to drive home the point. That entire scene was so relevant to that part of the world, it reflected the life of a star in those 90 seconds. It reflected the mind-set of the people of Chennai, how they have the power to make or break someone. In terms of content, everything in the ad was very Chennai and that is what makes it a tight piece of communication.”

Thank god, it isn?t me

Talking about the ads he dislikes, Paddy says, ? I am happy that I haven’t done any Country Club ads. Some time back, there was a TV ad of Country Club trying to showcase different locations (through a montage) and at the end of every region, the owner of the brand came in dressed like either a sheikh, a South Indian, etc. How can the owner be the brand ambassador for the brand! I just feel that it works against the brand because why should some one become a member if one sees the owner in the ad. It would make a difference if he was a Sachin Tendulkar or a Shah Rukh Khan or an MS Dhoni.?

He also does not like any of the government led initiatives, be it for polio, AIDS, environment, water conservation, tree plantation, etc. “Why are these ads so cold, boring and without any emotion. This is the category that is targeted at a larger group of people and to my knowledge, these look so outdated that even our grandfathers and grandmothers would ignore these ads. They simply look like tender ads. What is more annoying is that most of the time, these are full page ads and you feel sorry when you see these on a weekly basis in some of the leading newspapers,? he says.

My first ad

My first TV ad was for Servo engine oil. It was my second year in advertising. Ramesh Rabindranath was the creative director who was leading Mudra Mumbai at that time. Initially, we cracked the print ad which had the visual of a side angle of a car with an open bonnet. It looked liked an open mouth with a spoon of engine oil in front of the bonnet. The idea behind the campaign was that Servo Engine oil is like vitamin for your car which keeps the car healthy. After the print ad was created, Ramesh thought that the same thought can make a good film as well and that’s how I got my first film made. I was unfortunately unwell during the shoot of the film and thus, couldn’t attend the shoot. !?

Santosh Padhi launched Taproot India, along with Agnello Dias (Aggie), in 2009. After graduating from JJ School of Art in Mumbai, Paddy landed a job in Mudra in 1996 as a trainee visualiser. At Mudra, he has worked on brands such as HSBC, Reliance, Godrej Office Automations, Kinetic Engineering, Indian Oil Corporation and L&T Cement.

He quit Mudra in 1999 as art director and joined Leo Burnett where he spent more than ten years. When he quit the agency, he was the executive creative director and national head of art. At Leo Burnett, he worked on numerous brands such as Bajaj Caliber, Bajaj Chetak, Heinz, Glucon-D, Complan, Tide, McDonald?s, Fiat Palio, Mumbai Mirror, ICICI Credit Cards, Hitachi and more. He also met Aggie at Leo Burnett, with whom he worked for about six years before Aggie joined JWT in 2005.

Padhi is one of the most awarded creative people in the country. He has won at almost all international awards including Cannes Lions, One Show, Spikes Asia and many more. At Taproot, he works on brands such as The Times of India, Pepsi (project), Airtel (project), National Geographic, Fox History, Kick Cola (a Sri Lankan brand) and more.