MxMIndia

Tag: AAAI lifetime achievement

  • Always committed to the growth of the Advertising profession and its image, Bobby Sista has held important offices in many industry bodies

    AAAI to present Lifetime Achievement Award to Bobby Sista

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Advertising Agencies Association of India announced that this year’s AAAI Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to Shambhu Venkatrao Sista popularly known as Bobby Sista. This Award is the highest honour to be given to an individual in India for his/her outstanding contribution to the Advertising Industry.

     

    Bobby Sista has been one of the stalwarts of Indian Advertising. Known for his professional integrity, he constantly fought to ensure ethical business practices in a fiercely competitive profession. In 1970, after brief stints in Suhrid-Geigy and Readers Digest, he took charge of Sista’s Private Ltd, an agency founded by his father, the late Venkatrao Sista, a pioneer of Indian Advertising and one of the first Indians to establish a full-fledged advertising agency, in 1934.

     

    Always committed to the growth of the Advertising profession and its image, Bobby Sista has held important offices in many industry bodies. He was Vice-President of the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) for two terms. During his association with AAAI, Bobby played an important role in liaising with the government on numerous industry matters. He was also the founding member of Advertising Club Bombay!

     

    After his innings in the advertising industry, Bobby has been associated with a variety of social causes like ActionAid (an U.K. based Charity and the parent organisation of Partners in Change) , Sukhi Pariwar – an integrated Health Services and Family Planning Programme working successfully in Pune district, Citizens Council for a Better Tomorrow (CCBT), Mumbai. He is an Executive Committee Member of the Council for Fair Business Practices (CFBP), Mumbai. He also helped to set up the first Jaipur Foot Centre outside Jaipur. This was under the aegis of the Anga Karunya Kendra in Bangalore of which he is the Founder-Trustee. Currently as an Executive Trustee of Population First, he is actively pursuing the task of enhancing communications component of Government programmes and mobilizing the communication industry and media to create a people’s movement for social development and gender sensitization through his ‘Laadli’ initiative.

     

    Making the announcement, Dr. Ambi M G Parameswaran, President, AAAI, stated that “Bobby Sista is an industry veteran whose agency did some truly pioneering work in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. It is admirable that even after leaving the advertising business he has tirelessly worked for numerous worthy causes for social development. He is an inspiration to all of us!”

     

    The AAAI Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Mr Sista on 31st July 2015 in Mumbai.

     

  • Ad industry strongman Anil Kapoor felicitated with AAAI lifetime achievement

    By A Correspondent

     

    They don’t make people like him these days. Forthright, never into any frivolous conversation, he is known as a no-nonsense man in the industry,” said Shashi Sinha, CEO, IPG Mediabrands and Lodestar UM on Anil Kapoor, Chairman Emeritus, Draftfcb+Ulka group who was felicitated with the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) Lifetime Achievement Award last evening (Friday, September 27) at an event attended by top ad industry honchos and senior advertisers.

     

    Accepting the award from the AAAI, Mr Kapoor said: “There is never a dull moment in advertising. For me it was simply a passion. I strongly believe advertising agencies are solution providers and not suppliers of creativity.”

     

    Making his opening remarks, AAAI President Arvind Sharma said Mr Kapoor is a huge influence on the industry.

     

    Mr Kapoor was appointed Chairman Emeritus of Draftfcb + Ulka in 2010, after a 22-year stint with the company and its associated agencies. He is a Past President of the AAAI, Chairman of the Audit Bureau of Circulation of 2007-08 and was also on the Management Board of the National Readership Survey and the Television Audience Measurement Research. In May 2002, Kapoor was also inducted into the Foote, Cone & Belding’s Worldwide Board.

     

    Before joining Draftfcb+Ulka, Mr Kapoor was with the Boots for 14 years, where, as Marketing Director, he launched a string of brands, all of which went on to become market leaders. Before that, he was with the legendary agency MCM. He graduated in English Literature from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and then did his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

     

    “One thing that defines him is his ‘Never Say Die’ attitude. Anil Kapoor, who was seen as an outsider in the Industry, was soon accepted as an equal and may be as a ‘more than an equal’,” said Dr M G Parameswaran, Executive Director and CEO, Draftfcb + Ulka.

     

    Photographs by Fatema Rajkotwala