AG Krishnamurthy, who was my boss for 6 years between 1987 and 1993 in
advertising agency Mudra (now DDB Mudra group) passed away today leaving
hundreds of people and families desolate for he had shaped their
careers, outlooks and often their characters. I have spent my entire
life in advertising and have realised that advertising people, while
they come in all hues, seem to have certain basic characteristics. They
are invariably well turned out, smooth talking with a “hail fellow well
met” look that you can recognise miles away. I have always been amazed
by their ability to guzzle a few quick ones even if I have not been
inspired by their solutions to advertising problems. AGK was different.
He started his life as the curator in the Madras museum and rose to
become the Chairman and Managing Director of India’s fastest growing
advertising agency and one that remained truly Indian for an enormously
long period in time.
Advertising is all about solving problems
Some people can sell you anything under the sun, with their smooth
talking ability but are very shallow thinkers. AGK had the rare ability
of translating complex communication problems into single sentences. His
solutions were path breaking. Who can forget the cute girl eyeballing
the camera with an “I love you Rasna” or the advertising for an
essentially ordinary tagline “only Vimal” that through different
executions, season after season, made it a major brand. He was
passionate about advertising and Mudra. He had the childlike ability to
be turned on by great advertising. I remember his obvious and patent
excitement when we first showed him the Wilman shave foam commercial
with the lines “I don’t want to shave” that won us international
recognition. In a day and age when advertising heads of agency keep
looking at percentages he looked at creative for he believed that if you
took care of the agency’s product the numbers would take care of
themselves.
Manager with a difference
Advertising professionals are hardly great managers though there have
been wonderful exceptions. He was an amazingly secure man in an industry
that breeds insecurity given the fact that he belonged to a small town,
nor did he have a fancy degree. He surrounded himself with MBAs from
IIM in the late Eighties and mind you some of us had enormous egos and
his philosophy was “talent without tantrums”. He truly followed this
philosophy in an industry that had a fair share of prima donnas. He
realised that advertising is “the business of producing ads and TV
commercials” and Mudra was an agency that was run brilliantly contrary
to belief.
Mudra made profits quarter on quarter and we all met our targets. He was
able to enthuse the agency with the energy that you might see in a
start-up today. He truly believed that the managers’ only job is to
motivate his team. The agency rocked and many of us who spent our
formative years in Mudra are better managers and more importantly better
human beings today thanks to him. I will just give you a small incident
of how different he was as a professional. He wrote a letter to my wife
enclosing a beautiful sari, thanking her for supporting me in my
travels and underscoring her importance to Mudra. An MBA herself she was
floored by the enormous simplicity and genuineness of the man.
Maligned and misunderstood
One of the most intriguing things of that time as I reflect on it today
is the fact that nobody understood Mudra or “Mr Mudra”. He for one had
the courage to have his corporate office in Ahmedabad of all places. He
kept a low profile and gave no interviews. I remember in an industry
forum, another big ad professional of that time calling him an invisible
man to howls of laughter from the industry which was envious of the
business that the new kid on the block was picking up with such
ostensible ease. It was the industry’s loss that it did not till much
later give him his due. But the people who worked with him and his
clients knew his enormous worth to industry, advertising and brands. Who
had the vision to start Mudra even as this august institution completes
25 years? Who has given so much back to industry?
The triumvirate of Indian advertising
I had the good fortune of starting my life in advertising with RK Swamy.
A true legend. I had the good fortune of knowing Mani Ayer, who was
inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame when I was president of the
Advertising Club in Bangalore. I have written tributes to both these
giants of modern Indian advertising and now it is my lot to write for my
best boss who embodied the Nike line of “just do it” in advertising. I
will miss him as will thousands of others whose life he has touched in
so many small ways. He gave so much back to the industry that gave him
everything. AGK, your memory and legacy will live on.
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