(^30) FEATURE
July 22> 2018 [ impactonnet.com ]
AT THE
ASHRAM,
WE WALK
BAREFOOT, SO
THERE ARE NO
SHOES TO FILL:
AJAI JHALA
The outgoing CEO of BBDO India shares some of
his thoughts with Srabana Lahiri as he prepares to
bid adieu to his role of 10 years
You know the man.
His mantra is to disobey. To go against the
grain. To question the status quo. To destroy
the sameness.
He breaks stereotypes. And mindsets. And
makes new ones. Only to break them again.
And he has been doing so for 10 glorious years.
He taught us to revolt and stay uncomfortable
and restless in order to seek a higher purpose
and meaning for brands and advertising.
You know the man. And he knows you.
As one of the industry’s influential leaders, we
would be delighted if you join us to celebrate the
man in the most disobedient party of the decade.
Disobey the social niceties. Dress the way you
want. Speak the way you wish. Disobey your
designation.
Join us for drinks and dinner as we bid goodbye
to our friend, mentor, co-creator, co-founder
of ‘acts not ads’, Ajai Jhala - the ashram man
with his jungle logic who built this agency on
social disobedience.
T
hat farewell party invitation from
Josy Paul, Chairman and Chief
Creative Officer of BBDO India,
dated July 6, 2018, pretty much sums up
the role of outgoing CEO Ajai Jhala, his
partner of nearly a decade who helped
forge the agency’s philosophy of ‘Create
Acts Not Ads’, earning global acclaim and
giving birth to social movements in the
process of creating some iconic advertising
campaigns for top brands. Think Gillette,
Ariel, Whisper, Mirinda, Quaker, Visa, SC
Johnsons, All Out, Aviva et al and you get
the picture. “Growth for the sake of growth
is the ideology of a cancer cell,” Jhala had
once told us, explaining that for him,
business meant targeted growth, growing
brands and winning new business, all with
a sense of purpose.
Here are excerpts from a conversation
we had with Ajai Jhala a day before the
aforementioned farewell party, in which
he talks of his take-aways from a decade at
BBDO India, moving to Kent to be with his
family and what he is going to miss.
Q] What is the one big story that
emerges as you sum up your 10 years
at BBDO?
To me, the one big story is how we
as outsiders and underdogs carved out a
whole new way of creating brilliant and
brave work on big brands by challenging
cultural convention. One word (action)
was chiselled into a mantra (Create Acts,
not Ads) so powerful that we mounted a
love missile (Social Disobedience) on it to
challenge the way things are. The beauty of
the story is that it was always embedded in
the last two letters of BBDO. To DO is to be.
Q] How are things being managed
at the ground level? How are you
transitioning client relationships, for
instance? Who steps into your shoes?
We always work as a team and no
business is dependent upon any one
person. At the ashram, we walk barefoot so
there are no shoes to fill.
Q] What are some of the things that
you are going to miss?
Being part of the next big social
disobedience movement that BBDO India
develops for a big brand. Pop Culture
Wednesdays where once in a blue moon
we would go and see a movie during work
SPOTLIGHT