avi Deshpande, the newly-appointed chairman and chief creative officer of Contract Advertising, has a yen for architecture. That is probably why he is good at building brands. His first job, in 1985, was in the art department at Clarion (now Bates 141) in Mumbai, the then No 2 agency in India. Deshpande worked on Philips and TOMCO (Tata Oil & Mills) while there. But it wasn�t Deshpande�s kind of place. �It was a strategically led agency that backed safe ads. I felt kind of stifled there thanks to a lack of creativity,� he says. After 10 months, he moved to Ogilvy & Mather (O&M;), Bangalore.

The highlight of his stint in Ogilvy was when the legend himself, David Ogilvy, visited the Bangalore office for about a week. �He was sharp, witty and also quite forthright. He trashed one of my campaigns, telling me exactly what he thought of it!� he laughs. ... more