Josy Paul, chairperson and chief creative officer of BBDO India, took to the stage on day five of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
As jury president for the ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ category, he spoke about how creativity can shape tomorrow.
He started his talk by discussing his story, making a confession, and stating how his love for advertising began.
“I don’t come here as an expert. I come here as a lover. I know what it means to be crazy in love with advertising and that’s what I’m talking about,” he said.
He stated how a Nike ad from the 80s changed his life.
“It was a print ad. It showed a runner in some part of San Francisco. It had the line – they don’t let you into their schools, neighbourhoods or clubs, but the road is wide open. That’s when I fell in love with advertising and it changed my life,” he said.
After entering advertising, he was at the Philips office for a presentation during his first job, at Ogilvy.
“I threatened to jump out of the window because the marketing department didn’t like my idea. The agency didn’t realise the full marketing team and the CMO will be there. My first piece of work was about to die. I was about to jump out. Nobody in that group had seen such a piece of selling before,” he said.
Completing the story, he added, “They were scared and I was determined. The CMO who didn’t know me, told everyone to leave the room. He walked towards me and said to me in a sweet voice to calm down. He said, ‘son I love your passion but you have to give me a chance’. I liked the fact that he called me ‘son’. He then told me to go back to office. When I reached the office, my super boss was waiting next to the elevator. He held me by the ear and took me around the office. He told me that the client has approved the work but doesn’t want to see me again.”
He stated that moments like this were an outcome of him deeply caring about the things he does.
“Years later my dad called and said he was throwing all the journals in my house which I had written. They are creating webs in the attic. I had 200 journals, I got them back and began to read what I wrote,” he said.
One of his writings stated, “To create an environment so fertile, that even if you were to sow a seed of doubt, it would flower into something beautiful.”
That was what led to the launch of David in India.
“I wanted to start David in India as it was an ideology. It was a playschool of ideas. The power of play could lead to interesting work,” he said.
The office had a bathtub and a pot.
“If the idea was great, it went into the bathtub. If it was bad, it went into the flush,” he revealed.
BBDO
Paul left David to launch BBDO.
“One of the early pieces we created was #ShareTheLoad for Ariel. Now, 10 years later it just won a Silver Lion in the SDG category,” he said.
He said that the agency’s mantra is to work on confessions and not insights.
“Insights are collective. Confessions are personal. They go to a deep place. With that kind of depth, one figures out that everyone is the same and everyone connects. That’s what one tries to seek,” he surmised.