It was one of those mornings when the news hits harder than your first cup of coffee. Piyush Pandey, the master craftsman of Indian advertising, has left us. And with him goes an era when advertisements didn’t just sell products but told us stories about ourselves. If advertising mirrors society, Pandey’s advertisements reflected simplicity, hope and the little things that brought us joy. His work told us that India’s beauty lies not in perfection but in connection. His copy was as sharp as his handlebar moustache and just as iconic. He had the rare gift of noticing the obvious and turning it into magic.

The iconic Cadbury advertisement sold that fleeting moment when a young girl danced through a cricket field, a bar of chocolate in hand, telling us, “Kuch Khaas Hai Zindagi Mein.” We might be in 2025, but it still holds the same charm it did when it first came out. That one slogan made us look for joy in the ordinary. His work with the Polio campaign, “Do Boond Zindagi Ki,” is perhaps the best example of advertising as a force for social good. Coupled with Amitabh Bachchan’s gravitas, those four words changed behaviour across a nation. Two drops. Life itself. The simplicity was deceptive, the impact monumental. That’s what happens when you understand people, not just consumers.

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Pandey had a particular genius for turning mundane products into memorable characters. Take Fevicol. In addition to promoting adhesive, he........

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