Meet Sylvester daCunha, the man behind the iconic ‘Amul Girl’
Sylvester DaCunha was the one who chose to replace the “boring image” that had been used for the butter brand until then.
New Delhi: The man behind Amul Girl’s iconic 1966 “absolute butterly” campaign that captured the imagination of every child and adult around the end of the 20th century and continues to inspire many today, breathed his last a few days ago . Sylvester daCunha, along with his art director Eustace Fernandes, created the idea of the ‘Amul Girl’ for the Anand-based cooperative in the 1960s. The most famous Amul mascot, a mischievous girl with blue hair and a polka dot dress, first appeared on a few billboards in Mumbai and has since become one of the most important parts of the brand’s history.
How DaCunha transformed Amul’s image
It is almost impossible that no one knows about the famous ‘Amul Girl’ who can be seen on almost every newspaper or social media platform with his social commentary in his own style. DaCunha was the one who chose to replace the “boring image” that had been used for the butter brand until then. The plan was to have a girl who would “walk her path in Indian cuisine and the homemaker’s heart,” according to daCunha, as reported by ET Brand Equity.
Idea behind ‘Amul Girl’
The idea of the “Amul Girl” was actually taken over by DaCunha from a rival company called Polson, which once dominated the dairy market in the 1920s. A similar girl can be seen as the mascot of the then well-known dairy brand. Moreover, Amul’s iconic advertising idea was actually a pure reaction to the rival company Polson, which gained huge popularity worldwide and is still active, as reported by Jagran.
The report also added that Amul’s freshly made butter initially struggled as customers became more accustomed to rival company Polson’s sour cream butter. However, the company then made many improvements to its products to improve their taste and eventually became the market leader.
Aside from this, DaCunha is also credited with pioneering the idea of advertising based on current events, an idea that advertisers are still using today.
How Amul came to be
Dr. Verghese Kurien, the father of India’s White Revolution, founded Amul, the “utterly, buttery, wonderfully” company, in Anand, Gujarat, as a cooperative to acquire milk supplied by neighboring farmers. The aim was to pay farmers fairly while providing consumers with quality products at a good price-quality ratio. Dr. Kurein initiated ‘Operation Flood’ to transform India into a dairy-producing nation. Dr. Verghese Kurien was born on November 26, 1921 into an affluent Syrian Christian family in Calicut (now Kozhikode), Kerala.