The round-eyed, chubby cheek, blue-haired girl in her trademark red polka dot dress with a red polka dot bow. This is the description of one of the most famous advertising concepts in India, The Amul Girl. She made her debut on the outdoor banners in the late 1960s and still stands tall in the Indian market.
“Sometimes the purana zamana like the Taj Mahal can never grow old and the Amul girl can never grow old”, said Ad Guru Alyque Padamsee. In this digital era, it’s more about real-time marketing and the brands have to be very careful with their campaigns as the audience is sensitive to each activity. But the Amul girl has been entertaining the audience in her unique way for more than 50 years and it will continue to do so. Have you ever thought about how and why Amul girl got so much fame? Are you curious about her journey? Let us know the journey of the most loved mascot in India and how she entertained the country with her tongue-in-cheek humor and clever play of words. Keep scrolling!
Amul Mascot The Beginning!
The journey of the much-loved Amul girl started when Dr. Verghese Kurien – father of Amul and India’s White Revolution was looking for a strong ad campaign for his business which turned out to be India’s number one dairy brand and turned India into one of the largest milk producers. Dr. Kurien approached DaCunha Communications for advertising their brand. In that era, television and print advertising were wildly expensive hence they decided to go for affordable outdoor banner advertising.
In 1966, Amul girl made a debut on the outdoor boards. The cute girl mascot kneeling in prayer with one eye closed and with one she was looking at the pack of butter, with a message written which said “Give us this day our daily bread with Amul Butter”. This advertisement received a positive response from the public. The banner also unveiled its catchy phrase ‘Utterly Butterly Delicious’. Although initially, it met with a lot of skepticism because of its wrong grammar, to its surprise, it received a good response from the audience and became one of the most memorable taglines.
Amul Mascot Entry of Topical Advertisements
The advertisement was a hit in the market. Amul suddenly had a famous mascot in their hands. However, DaCunha realised that there was only so much that one can say on this particular topic. He decided to present the advertisements in a certain way that audiences would easily connect to them. Then came Amul’s first topical ad with the title ‘Thoroughbred’, which showed Amul girl as a jockey and holding a slice of bread and butter in the horse race. It again received a good response from the public.
Another advertisement that entered the market was of Hare Rama Hare Krishna movement with an interesting twist given to it. Have a look at it.
Then entered the monsoon ad with the tagline ‘Pitter-patter, pick-a, pack-a Amul butter’ and an ad about the Kolkata hartals ‘Bread without Amul —cholbe na, cholbe na’. This clever advertisement left a smile among the Bengalis. DaCunha Communications got liberty from Kurien to run campaigns without any permission and this provided more creative freedom to the advertisers. The outcome? You can see the power of Amul Girl in the markets.
Later, Amul combined current happenings and its mascot to create some creative advertisements which became relevant to the current times. For example:
Boris Johnson becoming Britain’s Prime Minister
When Govt. of India announced the vaccination drives for Covid
Final Season Of Games Of Thrones
“Very often she becomes the person in the ad” DaCunha said in one interview. He added, “Say we have a hoarding on Trump—she will become Melania. Or if it’s a Bollywood film, she will become Aishwarya Rai or Priyanka Chopra. She’s a cartoon, and she can morph and camouflage and be a chameleon, where she becomes the topic she comments on.”
Deepika Padukone and Aishwarya Rai’s Cannes Festival look
Amul with Kangana Ranaut
Politics is also one of the beats that Amul keeps an eye on.
When Priyanka Gandhi joined politics
Rahul Gandhi hugging Prime Minister Narendra Modi
As they adapted the tone of commenting on the happenings around the world, they were also subjected to controversies due to their advertisements.
Controversies and Amul Girl
An Amul advertisement on Ganpati Bappa was heavily criticised by Shiv Sena party workers to such an extent that they threatened to destroy Amul’s office if the advertisement wasn’t pulled off.
In 2001, the airlines community showed their disappointment towards Amul advertisements and threatened them to pull off the advertisement otherwise they would stop the supply of Amul products on planes.
In July 2011, an advertisement pointing towards Suresh Kalmadi got wrapped up around controversies and was asked to pull it off. In the same year, an advertisement on Mamta Bannerjee was also called out and caused trouble to Amul in Kolkata.
Amul’s call to boycott Chinese goods in 2020 also landed them in controversy.
Amul Girl – The Most Loved Indian mascot Conclusion
The Amul Girl is always ready as a mirror to society with one pun at a time. Amul Girl’s 24X7 readiness has made her a legendary mascot. She comments on social life, politics, movies, and on everything that’s particularly happening in the country and globally. It is simple, clever, and lovable.
Hence, Amul Girl is Utterly Butterly Wonderful!
