Ad industry doyen Sylvester daCunha , popular for being the creator of Amul Girl from the ‘utterly, butterly, delicious’ ads of the dairy products major, has passed away in Mumbai
Sylvester daCunha, along with his wife Nisha, conceptualised Amul’s 'Utterly Butterly' campaign in 1966. He came up with the Amul Girl idea when he was a manager at the advertising agency ASP. He got the project to reposition the Amul brand and decided to create a mascot that would resonate with women and girls
As per a report, Nisha daCunha came up with 'Utterly Amul,' part of the tagline and Sylvester daCunha added the word 'Butterly' to create Amul’s tagline, 'Utterly Butterly Amul.' Since then, the brand has stuck to this tagline. At that time, Amul was majorly known for its milk packets and butter
Sylvester daCunha then worked with late art director, visualizer, and cartoonist Eustace Fernandes. He designed the Amul Girl wearing a frock with red polka dots, big eyes, matching ribbons, and red shoes. Amul placed the cut-outs and posters of the Amul Girl on lamp-post boards in Mumbai. The tagline, “Give us this day our daily bread: with Amul butter” accompanied the advertisements
In 1969, Sylvester daCunha established his own ad agency, daCunha Communications. The agency created some memorable campaigns such as Party, Patni or Woh?, British Errways, and Bom Bye
The Amul Girl was positioned against its rival brand Polson's butter-girl. Dairy brand Polson was started by Pestonjee Eduljee in 1915 in Mumbai while its dairy was set up in Gujarat. During the 1930’s Polson butter had monopolised the business until the entry of Amul
Esther Lalduhawmi Hnamte is a child singer from Mizoram, India. She rose to fame in 2020 after her rendition of AR Rahman's song Maa Tujhe Salaam went viral. Amul honoured Hnamte as its Amul Girl
Amul took the route of print media to publish its ads, some of which became memorable. It often publishes ads featuring the Amul Girl based on topical events, be it sports, politics or entertainment
Some of the iconic Amul ads include -
- ‘'Chaar Chaand lag gaye’ to celebrate the Chandrayaan-1 Mission in 2008
- ‘Union ki har territory mein’ based on the revocation of Article 370, which provided special status to J&K, in 2018
- ‘Apple loses its core’ to mourn the death of Steve Jobs in 2011
- ‘Neeraj On The Thrown!’ to celebrate Neeraj Chopra Tokyo Olympics’ gold medal win
- ‘Embracing ya embarassing?’ on Rahul Gandhi ‘hugging’ PM Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha, are also among iconic ads featuring the Amul Girl