Hachette India

History of Indian Advertising In Ten-And-A-Half Chapters, The

Ritu Singh

In the last hundred-odd years, advertising in India has given us life-altering stuff.

It has attempted to make men Fair and Handsome. It has battled to make women 18 Again. And to both men and women it has given Tinder loving care. It has made us realize that we like pizza as much as the next Italian – as long as Domino's puts keema do pyaza on it and tempts us with 'Hungry kya?' It has made us re-evaluate our life choices and ask thought-provoking questions like 'Kitna deti hai?' of our cars and 'Kya aap Close-Up karte hain?' of our countrymen. In short, it has enriched our lives with quirky quips, unforgettable characters, inter-brand scuffles, clever insights, virtual lures and jaw-dropping controversies.

In A History of Indian Advertising in Ten-and-a-half Chapters, you'll find the best of case studies and unbusiness-like stories from Indian advertising through the ages – the hits, the misses, the also-rans and the banned. An engrossing read, this book will inform as much as entertain all readers.

Ritu Singh

Ritu Singh has been an ad-crafter for many years now, and has worked with J. Walter Thompson (JWT) India and the Times of India group. Early on in her career, she believed that clients were a villainous lot who lived to reject her perfect, efficient ads for their products. So, when she switched sides and became part of a marketing team, she was surprised to find that clients were, in fact, regular human beings with deep concerns about, among other things, how best to sell their products.

Being on both sides of the table has given her not only double the perspective, but also the dubiously thrilling feeling of being a double agent of sorts. In this book, she attempts to explore a third perspective on why our ads say the things they do. (No actual secret agents from the ad industry were harmed in its writing.)