Amul Girl, Sylvester daCunha’s utterly butterly legacy

Sarika Sharma

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During her growing-up years, acclaimed illustrator Priya Kuriyan would look forward to the Amul Girl advertisement in the papers, the topical sometimes leading her to look for the news that had prompted it. Eyes big and naughty, polka-dotted frock and her blue locks tied into a neat ponytail the Amul Girl was a creation of adman Sylvester daCunha, who died recently. She has been a constant through Kuriyan’s childhood, as also of several other Indians across generations for close to six decades now.

The Amul Girl first appeared as a jockey on Mumbai’s hoardings in 1966. ‘Thoroughbread’, it read, ‘bred’ cleverly replaced with ‘bread’ to establish a connection with the butter brand, then in competition with Polson. Ten years on, in 1976, it was to take a dig at the sterilisation drives during Emergency: ‘We’ve always practised compulsory sterilisation’. Sometimes political, sometimes with a social message, but always free-spirited, that’s the Amul Girl.

“It was the first homegrown character. We had seen so many one-image American comic characters like Dennis the Menace. This was the only Indian character that I remember seeing in popular culture when young,” says Kuriyan. Even as an established comic maker today, she finds herself craning her neck to check out the latest Amul Girl at the hoarding next to her parents’ house near Cochin Shipyard in Kochi.

Sylvester’s son Rahul daCunha joined his father’s company, DaCunha Communications, in 1993. The Amul Girl had been in the running for 27 years and already an icon. “His advice to me was to keep it fresh, funny and relevant. He told me to make sure each topical was as good as the last one because we are only as good as our last topical, he believed,” says Rahul.

Between his and his father’s time, he feels the biggest change has been the presence of the Internet and social media. If earlier they would cover national and local topics, the ambit has now widened. “Ours is a very diverse country there are 25 Indias in one. Looking back at our campaign, you’ll see that we move whichever way India moves. The ups, the downs, the lefts, the rights. Sometimes having fun, sometimes taking a stand, sometimes celebrating a victory. We are always reflecting what India is going through, thinking about,” he says.

Over the years, Amul’s effort seems to have appropriated a space that is almost ‘journalistic’, as if they are news media, with the right to comment on topical events, says communications strategy consultant Kartik S. “But Amul is not news media they pay the news media vehicle to have their topical ads displayed, day after day!” He adds that by “being so relentlessly regular with their daily toons featuring the Amul Girl”, they have done away with the need for celebrities to endorse the brand.

The ‘topical’, as an ad on contemporary events is referred to in the industry, has maintained a thread of continuity through different generations, different social and political climates the pun and wit intact.

Kunal Vijayakar, who joined Sylvester as a trainee and went on to become creative director of the company, says the greatness of the Amul ads lies in the original idea. “Once that idea had been set, it became very easy to write those hoardings. If you have a slightly funny bone, you can do it. When I was at the agency, ideas would come from anywhere. It was not some great genius that was required to write those lines. The genius was in the original idea that Sylvie had. The genius was creating the girl. Subsequently, all of us built on that original idea.” And in his Amul Girl, Sylvester daCunha’s genius will live on.