Ad World's Evergreen Family

Chairman and Managing Director of Madison World, Sam Balsara, and Executive Director of Madison World and also his daughter, Lara Balsara Vajifdar enter a meandering chat with Priyanca Vaishnav on early moorings, eliminating gender norms and the Jiyo Parsi campaign

From his early years in Valsad — a small town in Gujarat — to schooling in Bishop Cotton Boys’ and graduating out of St. Joseph’s in Bangalore, then making that final move to Bombay to study at Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies and eventually, securing his first job at pharmaceuticals company of yesteryears, Sarabhai — Sam Balsara has done it all.

BEFORE IT ALL BEGAN

The granddad of advertising has literally been there and done that, and come back to start from scratch and make a mark on the Indian ad canvas that 39 years hence, no one’s been able to duplicate, leave alone come close. Having groomed and now inducted his daughter Lara Balsara Vajifdar as well into the deep end of the Madison World business, the father-daughter duo have shown outsiders and newbies alike that Madison’s only going one way, and that’s upwards and onward!

Brand Manager at Cadbury as well as Sarabhai for four years each before finally moving to advertising, Balsara’s first tryst with the agency world was at Contract. He says, “Contract was just starting as the second agency of HTA, so I joined it as the founder member, in client service. I was the head of client service. The four years I was there, I think the most outstanding work was the launch of a cigarette for Vizier Sultan Tobacco Company called Charms. It had a denim pack and outstanding advertising. That was sort of Contract’s claim to fame.” His next pitstop was Mudra, a fledgling agency at the time compared to the multinational giant that was Contract.