Iconic Ads: Amul Butter – Utterly Butterly Delicious

Advertising and Sales Promotion (ASP) was awarded the Amul account back in 1966. The account was handled by a group that included Sylvester da Cunha (Sylvie), Eustace Fernandes, Usha Katrak, and Marie Pinto.

The competition to Amul Butter was Polson and they needed to counter it.

Sylvie and (art director) Eustace decided that needed a little girl who would win a housewife’s heart. Thus Amul Moppet was born in a red polka dot dress

The simple yet catchy phrase “Utterly Butterly” was coined by Sylvie’s wife, Nisha DaCunha. Because it was ungrammatical, the term “butterly” was initially greeted with suspicion. However, it worked well for the brand and quickly became one of the most remembered advertising slogans in India!

The cute Amul girl kneeling in prayer with one eye closed and the other on a carton of butter with the slogan “Give us this day our daily bread with Amul Butter” won rave reviews as the first creative.

.For the first year the ads made statements related to the product. In 1967, Sylvie decided that creatives should move to social referencing because there was that much you can talk about the product.

While making the switch, to current affairs, Sylvie requested Dr Kurien to give the creative team “complete freedom”. He agreed & said, ‘Look if there are problems, you need to deal with them. If you are arrested, then you are arrested. We are not going to bail you out of jail.’ And they have not gone to jail

Sylvie released the Amul girl’s first topical ad. The Amul girl appeared in an advertisement during the horse racing season, titled “Thoroughbread” where she was shown as a jockey clutching a slice of bread 

The Amul account team, led by Sylvester daCunha and included Mohammad Khan and Usha Bandarkar, came up with the catchphrase “Hurry Amul, Hurry Hurry” in 1969, the same year the Hare Rama Hare Krishna movement debuted in the city.

Sylvie’s son Rahul took over & works with copywriter Manish Jhaveri & illustrator Jayant Rane to keep the Amul Girl busy. She is versatile – she can become the person in the ad & change according to the topic. She keeps company with Trump, Priyanka, Chopra, Deepika, Liverpool & so many others.

The ad campaign acquired its distinctive lexicon under Jhaveri, with jokes and a colloquial touch. He also introduced a fresh combination of regional and formal lingo that the audience embraced.

Rane, on the other hand, has been meticulously painting the advertisements by hand for the past thirty years. Even while adding famous variations, the cartoonist refers to scrapbooks created by past teams to guarantee that he keeps to Amul girl’s distinctive traits – blue hair, chubby cheeks, big eyes, no nose, and long eyelashes.

The Amul ads remain lighthearted, keep the people smiling & looking for more

When a British manufacturer introduced butter to the market and termed it Utterly Butterly, the name was the highest possible tribute to the brand & product.