gnello Dias had just 24 hours to come up with a creative for the new The Times of India (TOI) TVC. Time was running out fast when, in the morning, he saw an obituary and a birthday greeting on the same page of TOI. The coin dropped and Dias formulated the idea of "Pakkya". "There must be someone sad and there must be someone happy at the same time, I thought, and both - the sad and the happy news - were coming from the same paper," he says.
Dias, who made the ad when he was executive creative director at Leo Burnett, Mumbai, is now with JWT as vice president. Incidentally, the Times of India too has switched its account to JWT.
The commercial is set in a typical Indian town beside a river. The film opens with an ecstatic boy running across a bridge, newspaper in hand, shouting, "Pakkya select ho gaya! Dekho apna Pakkya!" All roads seem to lead to Pakkya's (short for Prakash) house, where a jubilant crowd is dancing to the tune of a typical Indian local band. The boy shows Pakkya's father, the sports page of The Times of India with the headline: Prakash Mirajkar selected (in the hockey team for Olympics). The father joins in the merry making as the mother reads the news. ... more