)
It was in March, 2013 that Bobby Pawar, then chief creative officer at JWT India, resigned following an ugly controversy over a poster campaign for Ford Figo. The latter had sparked worldwide outrage for projecting high-profile sportsmen and celebrities bound and gagged in the boot of the car. The controversy also dented the credibility of the Creative Abbies at the Goafest, where it was entered by the agency. Since then, 47-year-old Pawar has moved on. He is now director & chief creative officer at Publicis, South Asia, and is silently working at raising the profile of the agency. He chats with Viveat Susan Pinto about how far he has gone in this endeavour and his views on awards shows in India. Edited excerpts:
It has been a little over a year since you joined Publicis. What have you been upto?
We have done some talked-about work in recent months. The Park Avenue Beer Shampoo commercials, HDFC Mutual Fund (for its Cancer Care Fund), Ambuja Cement (Thod Do Deeware) are some of them. This is stuff that has generated word-of-mouth. I am happy we made a start. We need to up our game. There is no denying that. But we are slowly but steadily getting our act together.
But Bobby Pawar has always been associated with big-bang ad campaigns. When do we see them at Publicis?
You will see them. If we don't do famous work for our brands, then what am I doing here. I believe we can do it and I think brands need that as well. There is just so much competition around that you need those big campaigns that can catch the consumer's attention. You need those big-bang ideas. A lot of times going unconventional is one way of catching the consumer's attention. So yes, that is one approach we are taking. But it will take some time for the fruits to show. Big ideas don't happen every-time. A lot of things need to come together for a big idea to work. It needs to be bought into by a client, it needs to be backed by them with big budgets, as well as executed well by the creative team. We are working in that direction.
What are the systems and processes you are putting in place at Publicis to raise its creative product?
It is about the mind-set more than anything else. We have to get better everyday. We are not in the business of beating anybody. We are trying to beat who we were yesterday. We are trying to build a culture where we fall out of love with the stuff we create quickly. The attitude should be: Done that, move on. That is the culture we have to imbibe. As for the process, we have to be tough with ourselves, if we have to go anywhere. My first priority is the brands that we have. If we are not doing justice to them then I am not doing my job well. We are also folding all the different creative teams across units such as Publicis Ambience, Publicis Capital, Beehive together. It is about one team, one culture. This way we can harness their strengths better. I am not saying that these units will not exist. They will under the Publicis umbrella, since they work on conflicting business. But I am the common link that brings all of them together at the larger group level. I am also revamping the creative team. A lot of the creative team in Delhi at Publicis has been revamped. Mumbai is also on its way to being revamped. The process is on.
In recent months, there has been this debate about whether the Goafest (and Creative Abbies, in particular) has become irrelevant. Your views on this, given that you have been closely associated with it.
The problem with award shows is that they have become chest-thumping competitions. They are no longer a celebration of creativity. It is about: I am that much better than the rest of you. That's it. Apart from this one-up-man-ship, the bigger problem also is that award shows have become institutionalised and have got into the performance appraisal of people. Naturally, they will do anything to win awards. In India, there has also been a credibility crisis with awards. But I don't want it (Abbies) to take a back-seat. I think in its purest form, an awards show is a good thing where we celebrate the best work in town. The moment we can make it ego and agency-agnostic, the purity will return. I have not judged Goafest for a while. I freely admit that it was wrong on my part. We have to come together and change this. Losing the Abbies is bad for creativity. We need a local awards show.
Are alternate award shows such as Kyoorius a welcome change?
Everybody is welcome. The Kyoorius D&AD Awards comes with its strengths. But the Abbies have been around for a long time. It would be a shame to see it die. You need a vibrant, local awards show. It is good to win internationally. But a lot of work that we do is so culturally-driven that it is only a local award that can recognise its true intrinsic value. It can be understood and appreciated far more at a local awards show. Which is why it is so critical to have one. In my view, more creative people need to be engaged to decide what the (Abby) awards show should be like. The spiritual leadership of the Creative Abbies should be with creative people. Look at the One Show and D&AD, they are led by creative people. Cannes is commercial, but the global chief creative officers of ad agencies and companies still have a say at the festival, which helps in maintaining a balance between business and creative interests. We need to strike this balance at the Abbies.
