Why a sense of humour is good for any company

In this excerpt from his new book Adman Madman’, Prahlad Kakar proves that too rigorous an approach sometimes leads to a brand's decline

- Prahlad Kakar with Rupangi Sharma

We all knew it would happen someday, but when it did, we were left feeling distraught. Vibha Rishi had been promoted to the Pepsi New York office. She had been a huge support, and stood behind HTA's (Hindustan Thompson Associates, later merged with JWT India) creative team and our production house like a rock. She had so much faith in us that she even pushed me to represent Pepsi at national debates. An era had passed. Then, Anuja (Chauhan) left HTA to pursue writing.

That left the suits totally exposed to the new team at Pepsi and they were in a tizzy. The new honcho at Pepsi was a proper corporate type, who followed the book to the letter and took the pants off the servicing team, who had had it very easy so far, as the creative team had their backs.

Now, with a brand-new creative team of newbies and a brand-new client who wanted everything in writing and by the book, Pepsi swiftly lost its mojo and spontaneity.

The suits took charge and started following briefs to the T. There were no sudden flights of fancy, but they wanted the humour. After all, irreverent humour was Pepsi's DNA.

The problem was that the jokes soon became forced, because they were trying too hard to be funny. In life, there are people who can laugh at themselves and do, and then there are people who take themselves very, very seriously and can't bear the idea of being laughed at. That's exactly what happened to a hapless Pepsi India, who started taking themselves very seriously.

Pepsi's whole attitude to Coke has always been that of an underdog, and, therefore, they could cock a snook at the monolithic Coke and get away with it internationally. Coke, of course, chose to studiously ignore the pipsqueak Pepsi, but in India, Pepsi had become number one.