Ambi M G Parameswaran remembers his friend and one of the brightest strategic thinkers of the industry, former Rediffusion President Ashoke Bijapurkar
I think it was in June, 1979 that I got to meet Rama and Ashoke Bijapurkar. I had spent just a month in the ad world, fresh out of IIM-C, and my then boss PS Vish Viswanathan wanted me to meet other sane (or insane) people of similar lineage who had chosen Advertising over more enticing Marketing careers. It is my good fortune that over the last 36 years, Ashoke has been a well-wisher and a very good friend. So when I got a call from Shanta Kumar recently (and he said in Tamil, ‘Dai, Ashoke poitanda!’), I did not believe him. I had to cross-check the information with yet another common friend, Dorab Sopariwala, before the news really sank in and registered.
Ashoke did his MBA from XLRI (1969-71) and incidentally, one of his friends from XLRI days was Shanta Kumar. After his MBA, he decided to work on a social/tribal project around Jamshedpur; he then opted to move to IIM-A to do a PhD or an FP programme. Incidentally, it was there that he met his soon-to-be wife, Rama.
After IIM-A, Ashoke joined Clarion McCann Advertising, and was probably one of the first IIM-A FP to take up a full-time job in a leading advertising agency. He moved from Clarion to Chaitra (now Leo Burnett) in 1978, and around 1983, he joined Rediffusion Advertising. He spent almost two decades at Rediffusion, where he rose to be the President. He later moved to PR/Image Advisory Services before setting up a consulting and coaching practice of his own.
During his long innings at Rediffusion, he was closely involved with almost all their key accounts. Legendary campaigns like ‘Give Me Red’ for Eveready Red, ‘A movement called TELCO’ for Tata Engineering, ‘Annu Tazgi De De’ for Tata Tea and ‘Fresh Breath Energy’ for Colgate Gel were conceived, presented and worked their magic under his watch.
Ashoke was always know to support his creative partners as can be evidenced by the birth of those legendary campaigns. But more importantly, he was always a person who gave very sane, sound advice to clients and colleagues. In the advertising world, which is full of flashy, glitzy, fast-talking individuals, Ashoke was someone who abhorred flashiness. When things around the office were falling apart, he was often the sanest voice to be heard.
Ashoke, given his depth and width of knowledge, was one of the brightest strategic thinkers in the industry. While he was often ready to eloquently argue a positioning or a creative stance, he was also very comfortable to be a silent listener. It is difficult to find someone who has an unkind word to say about him.
While our paths did not cross at Rediffusion, we have had many many common friends and innumerable occasions of banter and some intense conversations. He often used to lament the way advertising agencies have stopped engaging with the CXOs in large organizations and the new obsession with ‘glitzy’ things in the world of advertising. Though he left advertising over a decade ago, I think he continued to be a concerned adman at heart. Or so I would like to believe.
While he hailed from the Western part of India, Ashoke was a Bengali at heart, says a good friend. Given his schooling and college education in Kolkata, he was very fluent in the wonderful Bengali language and apparently just like the bhadralok of Alipore, Kolkata, Ashoke did not consider a meal without fish, a meal at all.
I will miss him, his quiet wisdom, his deep thinking and his dry wit.
Ashoke is survived by his wife Rama and their daughter Aparna.
May his soul rest in peace!
(The writer is ED FCB Ulka Advertising and President, AAAI; Written with inputs from good friends Shanta Kumar and Dorab Sopariwala)
