For many Indians, the morning news is incomplete without the Amul girl’s daily tongue-in-cheek take on current affairs, newsmakers and celebrities. The iconic noseless girl with blue hair and a red polka-dot frock made her Utterly Butterly Delicious debut in 1966 and has stayed top of mind ever since. The brainchild of adman Sylvester daCunha, it is now in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running advertising campaign in the world.
Sylvester, who passed away on June 20 at the age of 92, was one of India’s creative legends. After he started his own advertising agency, daCunha Communications, in 1962, he worked with a myriad of major brands, including Britannia biscuits, Lakmé, and Tata Tea. A multitasker, he was also the founder of the Theatre Group of Bombay, and served as a food and nutrition consultant on a number of projects with the World Bank and UNICEF.
