By Carol Goyal
Simone Tata met Diwan Arun Nanda at a party. The year was perhaps 1977 or 1978. They got chatting about beauty and beautiful creatives. And that is where this enchanting story begins. Rediffusion, born in 1973, was by then already making waves as India’s very own red-hot creative agency. Simone asked a then-young-20-something Arun Nanda to think up some ‘great stuff’ on Lakmé. Simone said that cosmetics as a category was showing almost no growth, with consumers mostly concentrated in the larger cities. Nanda said he needed time to study the category, and understand for himself consumer motivations and expectations (what else would you expect from the very first gold-medalist of IIM Ahmedabad?!).
Lakmé, the brand, had been launched by JRD Tata in 1952 at the personal request of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, to create India’s own cosmetic brand, saving precious foreign exchange spent on imported Western makeup and providing products tailored for Indian skin tones and preferences. Simone Tata (JRD’s cousin Naval Tata’s French wife and Ratan Tata’s stepmother) started to helm the business some years later. Lakmé was then a brand of TOMCO (Tata Oil Mills Company).
Back at the agency, Arun Nanda and his team got down to some serious brand thinking. Focused group discussions were held all over the country, including in smaller towns. Some very interesting perspectives emerged. Cosmetics were seen to be taboo as they would make a woman attractive to “other men”. In plain speak, a woman was only supposed to be the cynosure of the husband. Anything that got her attention from “others” was a complete no-no. So, ‘looking good’ was not a social necessity. Two, even if the woman wanted to use cosmetics (mostly on special occasions like weddings and festivals), she actually did not know how to apply them or use them.
Based on the consumer feedback, Rediffusion’s star creative duo Kamlesh Pandey (copy) and Arun Kale (art) set to work. Lakmé had till then always advertised on the back pages of magazines with beautiful colour ads showing a well-dressed model and their range of lipsticks and nail enamel. Team Rediffusion went to Mrs Tata with a black and white campaign with a taboo-breaking theme, ‘Is it bad to look good?’ Mrs Simone Tata was so upset, she told Rediff’s Bombay Branch Manager, Vishwanathan, who went on hard-selling her the black and white campaign, “Mr Vishwanathan, I don’t want to see your face!” But those days, the agency business had tigers for executives. Vishwanathan replied, “Mrs Tata, I don’t care if you do not like my face, but this is the campaign you are going to buy!” Wow, man!
Ultimately, Simone Tata not only bought the 4-ad campaign after Diwan Nanda’s intervention, and polite persuasion – ‘Is it bad to look good?’, ‘Does make-up label you ‘fast’, ‘loose’ or ‘that type’?’, ‘Do men look down on make-up?’, and ‘Is make-up a difficult art to learn?’, but the campaign won multiple awards in 1978, including Campaign of the Year. Coincidentally, Lakmé had sponsored the first CAG Award that year for the Best Copywriter, which went (you guessed it right) to Kamlesh Pandey for Lakmé! Simone, in fact, personally penned a very sweet note to Pandey, which he treasures to this day.
What followed was a consumer education campaign running into multiple ads – Make-up: Any woman can do it well. Lakmé shows how… The lines were provocative, yet sweet. ‘The birthday suit you can preserve but cannot change’ ad showed a half visible nude woman’s back, and a young nude girl child. It kicked up a media storm, but it also made waves with consumers. ‘Foundation to bet your blush on’ followed. So did half a dozen others. The series was a super-duper hit with women.
Shyamoli Varma, the Lakmé model, meanwhile had become a national celebrity because of the stunning creatives. But it was the Lakmé kajal film that took her to dizzy heights. Kajal had been traditionally made in India by trapping the smoke from burning ‘sarson’ oil. But in recent years, villains in Hindi movies were portrayed with heavy kajal make-up and the product had started to take on negative overtones. Shyamoli helped Rediffusion ‘uncover the secret of bright, beautiful eyes’ for Lakmé with kajal in pencil form.
There was another super ad that Rediffusion created with Shyamoli – that for Lakmé nail enamel and lipstick. Kamlesh and Arun Kale decided to use a close-up of Shyamoli playing a silver flute, with colours on her nails and lips dissolving to newer shades in every subsequent frame. Kamlesh Pandey got Simone to agree to get Hari Prasad Chaurasia to play a bamboo flute for authentic music. But in the film, Shyamali Verma was playing a metal flute. Pandit Chaurasia noticed the discrepancy and objected but Pandey silenced him saying who but the real connoisseurs of classical Indian music would know the difference? Simone Tata too didn’t notice. The Ravi Chopra directed film became a sensation.
They no longer make clients like Simone Tata any more. What started as a confrontation with a potential new client pivoted to a decade-long love affair that was a blissful celebration of great creative excellence.
My tales here are all hearsay, and based on advertising folklore. Some from Mr Nanda when he was alive, and some from the legendary Kamlesh Pandey, who is still all beans. They all adored and respected Mrs Tata. She was willing to experiment; willing to try out new ideas. Most importantly, she loved and supported the agency team even on projects that started out seeming a bit crazy. The result invariably was pure magic!
(Carol Goyal is Executive Director of Rediffusion.)
