The Amul girl may be 40, but she hasn’t aged. She’s still utterly, butterly delicious.
For the past four decades, she has tickled our funny bone, shed tears with us in times of sorrow, congratulated the Indian cricket team on its victory and brought a smile on so many faces every morning with her one-liners. The latest: Anhonee ko Dhoni karde, after India became T20 champions.
It all began in 1966, when the Amul account was given to the advertising agency, Advertising and Sales Promotion. The brief to the key people working on the account — K. Kurian, Sylvester daCunha, Eustace Fernandes and Usha Katrak — was to dislodge Polson from its premium position by establishing Amul as a leading butter brand in Bombay.
“I had five thick markers with me and I was asked to create a little mischievous girl, the Amul butter mascot. In a matter of minutes, I had a rough sketch ready — the girl had blue hair, orange face and her dress sported polka dots. There was no shading,” the creator of the Amul mascot, artist Eustace Fernandes, 71, recalls. It was shown to "milkman” Verghese Kurien, who gave a go-ahead immediately.
Recalling the campaign, K. Kurian told the Hindustan Times: “Since we had planned... many hoardings, we had to make sure that the painters could paint the mascot in a few minutes. Everything had to be painted by hand in those days.”
{{/usCountry}}Recalling the campaign, K. Kurian told the Hindustan Times: “Since we had planned... many hoardings, we had to make sure that the painters could paint the mascot in a few minutes. Everything had to be painted by hand in those days.”
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