Awards aren't a barometer of creativity: Prathap Suthan

Interview with chief creative officer and managing partner, Bang in the Middle

Bobby Pawar, the creative director at JWT, and his entire team lost their jobs and a senior marketing executive at Ford was asked to leave as well after the company's campaign showed caricatures of socialite Paris Hilton, the Kardashian sisters and former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi in bad taste. Aabhas Sharma talks to Prathap Suthan, chief creative officer and managing partner, Bang in the Middle, about the controversy, 'scam' ads, the pressure of winning awards and the challenges that Indian advertising industry now faces

What's your take on the whole Ford-JWT controversy?
In an ideal world, the creative team should not have done the campaign but the whole reaction to it has been extreme. The debate on what's insensitive needs to be looked at in a larger perspective. Why aren't we saying anything against movies, books, or even photographs which are demeaning towards women? Yes, the agency messed it up. But it's one campaign and it's open to interpretation.

Is there too much pressure on agencies to create campaigns just for the sake of winning awards?

Every agency's key result areas (KRA) include delivering award-winning campaigns. Does it create pressure on the agency? It depends actually. Personally speaking, I don't take them seriously. Marketing heads don't sit with agencies, demanding an award-winning campaign. They want effective campaigns which help in selling products. The idea of any campaign is simple: the company tells you what they want to say, and the agency tells them how to say it. The sales guys, the distribution guys or even, for that matter, the board of directors, don't care about awards.

But then why is there an increasing trend to create ads specifically for awards?
Scam ads are experimental in nature and I don't think there's a need to look down upon them. Advertising is an art and most of the times it will end up taking different forms. For instance, if you're working on a chocolate account and a creative person comes up with an idea about a chocolate which is so crunchy that every time you take a bite, it sounds like music to your ears, the idea is not slanderous or demeaning, but it's just not suited for mass media. It won't work in print or TV but should I tell the creative guy to junk the idea because it's "scam"? We are in a creative business and at times some beautiful, positive thinking results in an idea. As long as a campaign doesn't cross the line of insensitivity and decency, I don't think there should be a problem. Awards are good for discussions among your peers and I don't think the badge of "most-awarded" agency means much if you aren't doing great work. Some agencies which do excellent work rarely send in their entries for awards. Does that mean they aren't good enough? Awards are a good talking point but not a barometer for creativity at any agency. I think it was Leo Burnett who famously said a long time ago, "An idea can turn into dust or magic, depending on the talent it rubs against."

Is there a talent crunch in Indian advertising at the moment?
I wouldn't say there is a dearth of talent coming through but there is definitely a big problem of talent retention. Earlier, the ad agency revenue model was different. If a media company's budget was Rs 100 crore then 15 to 17 per cent would go to the agency. This meant that there was enough in our pockets to retain the good talent in the agency. Things don't work like that anymore and that has resulted in a severe talent retention crisis in the industry. We aren't able to pay people well and they rightfully expect a certain incremental value year-on-year. The other problem is that unlike the '80s or '90s, when advertising was perhaps one of the few "creative" fields, the options for young people have grown multifold. You don't need to be in advertising to be creative. Bollywood has become huge, the TV and music industries give you many platforms to channel your creativity, there's animation and so on. Why would a guy - unless advertising is his only choice - come to the industry when there other fields where he can use his creativity in a better way and certainly for a better pay?