When veteran adman Piyush Pandey passed away at 70 in Mumbai, India didn’t just lose a creative legend—it lost the mind behind some of its most enduring cultural memories. From Fevicol’s witty “Jor laga ke haisha” to Asian Paints’ emotional “Har ghar kuch kehta hai,” Pandey’s work shaped how India spoke, laughed, and felt through advertising.
But among his many masterpieces, one ad still holds a special place—the 1994 Cadbury Dairy Milk commercial that showed a young woman dancing freely on a cricket field, chocolate in hand, celebrating pure, unfiltered joy.
In the early 1990s, Cadbury faced a challenge. The brand was seen as a treat for children, not something adults would indulge in. The brief to Ogilvy & Mather was clear: make chocolate desirable for everyone.
Pandey was on vacation in the United States when he got an urgent call. Cadbury wanted something exceptional or the account was at risk. On his flight back to Bombay, he scribbled lyrics on the back of his boarding pass—words that would later become the soul of the ad.
He teamed up with jazz maestro Louis Banks, who composed the melody in just 15 minutes. The initial English track was sung by Gary Lawyer, but Pandey felt it needed an Indian heart. He rewrote the lyrics in Hindi and called Shankar Mahadevan, whose voice gave the song its now-famous warmth and emotion.
With the music ready, Pandey still needed someone to bring the idea of carefree happiness to life. The team wasn’t looking for a trained dancer or a glamorous face—they wanted authenticity.
That’s when Shimona Rashi entered the picture. She wasn’t a professional dancer, but her uninhibited, natural movements were exactly what Pandey envisioned.
The ad, directed by Mahesh Mathai, was filmed at Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium. Shimona’s dance was shot in a single take, unrehearsed and spontaneous. It captured the essence of unfiltered happiness—and history was made.
When the ad aired, it immediately struck a chord with audiences. For the first time, chocolate wasn’t just for kids—it symbolized joy, freedom, and the child within every adult.
As Prakash Nair, Associate President at Ogilvy, later explained, “Before this campaign, Cadbury was always a parent’s gift to a child. This ad made it something for everyone.”
The campaign swept advertising awards and was later named the “Campaign of the Century” at the Advertising Club Bombay’s Abby Awards. But its real achievement was cultural—it made chocolate timeless.
In 2020, Ogilvy reimagined the ad for a new generation, this time featuring a young man running onto the field to celebrate a woman cricketer’s success. Pandey approved the idea with one request: keep the original music untouched.
Even in today’s age of algorithms and viral moments, that melody—and Shimona Rashi’s spontaneous dance—still connect across generations.
That’s the legacy of Piyush Pandey. He didn’t just sell products; he celebrated life, turning everyday emotions into something extraordinary.
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