Alyque Padamsee, a true advertising champion and a great theatre personality

Alyque Padamsee who was addressed GOD in Lintas spent many decades in advertising and theatre. As head and Chief Executive of Lintas, Alyque built Lintas India into one of the top agencies in the country. In a span of over four decades Alyque must have built over 100 brands and he is one of the only Indian to be voted into the International Clio Hall of Fame of the Oscars of World Advertising. Beside building many brands Alyque also devoted lot of his precious time towards social cause advertising in a huge way. One such big cause was for the Indian Cancer Society where he was the advisor to Dr. Jussawala who was the founder of Indian Cancer Society. Some good awareness campaigns for Cancer Society were created which educated the people and asked them to do cancer check-ups as a preventive measure.

Starting from Lalitaji for Surf, Cherry Charlie for Cherry Blossom Shoe Polish, the MRF muscleman, the famous Liril girl in waterfall are some of his memorable campaigns which even today are fresh and evergreen after many years. Even after he moved from Lintas, Alyque still played an active role in the industry and he was advisor and consultant for many Indian brands.

I also distinctly remember that Alyque was one of the first CEO’s who inducted talent from the premier management school to bring in some diversity to creative thinking. He believed in marketing and encouraged the managers from the management school to bring in their professional expertise which helped in adding value to clients. As he said in his book A Double Life … theatre develops your imagination, while advertising develops your analytical power. So, he introduced the power of analytics to introduce computer-aided media planning and worked very closely with the team on some of the media models which Lintas developed.

Alyque was stickler for deadlines and bought in lot of discipline in work. When you are summoned by Alyque’s office, you cannot go empty handed. You always need to carry a pen and pad. He used to keep reminding people never think your mind and brain is a computer. He ensured that everybody takes notes meticulously. While Advertising was his passion but his role in theatre created even a bigger impact. When it came to theatre, he had a great eye for detail and he always ensured that the sets were lavish, expensive with great costumes, good lighting, melodious music and great sound system in place. He was a true showman and all his shows were always houseful.

I had the opportunity of meeting Alyque a couple of times at Karishma Advertising (Subsidiary of Lintas). Once while Alyque was at our Nirmal office and he met me on the corridor and asked me what account do you handle. I quickly said Rallifan. And his immediate reply was you must create a memorable property like the Polar Double Ball Bearing Fans for Rallifan. Those were days when Alyque made it a point that all brand communication must create a memorable property which will be sticky and easy to remember.

With Alyque passing away the industry has lost a great leader, pioneer and mentor in the field of advertising and theatre. The teachings he imparted in advertising and branding will continue to be applied for generations to come.

Ganapathy Viswanathan

An independent consultant in Branding and Communication, Ganapathy Viswanathan comes with over three decades of experience in Brand Communication, Public Relations & Digital Marketing. He has worked in diverse disciplines with several multinational advertising agencies like Ogilvy, Lowe and Mudra Group.

On the Public Relations front, he was the General Manager, Western region of 20:20 MSL, where he spearheaded the western region operations. In his last role he was the Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing Communication at Eureka Mobile Advertising - a mobile engagement company in India head quartered in UK.