Prasoon Joshi
Title : How to Script Success
 
Company Name : McCann Erickson & OMNI-TALENTED
 
 
       
 

Ad legend, lyricist par excellence, talented writer. list of descriptions run out when it comes to Prasoon Joshi. His business card might show him as the national creative director and vice-president of McCann Erickson India. But his name has come to be regarded with awe in the Bollywood music scene as well as in literature. Hailing from the small town of Almora in the Garhwals, Prasoon's story is the stuff legends are made of. Life in the cool environs of the Himalayan foothills had turned him into a writer in his heart.

Creativity runs in his blood, which is why, despite acquiring an MBA degree, he moved to copywriting in the world of advertising. He started his career in O&M. Soon enough, his talent was recognized and Prasoon Joshi became a big name in the industry. His love for writing helped. "I have been writing ever since I remember," he says. His first book was published when he was just 17 years of age and the other two - one a compilation of poetry Dard So Raha Hai and the other Samadhan written in prose - added to his repertoire. His writing career in fact had begun in the fifth standard where he circulated a handwritten magazine read by both students and teachers alike.

Apart from leaving his mark with successful campaigns like VDIS, Nokia, Kelvinator, Discovery Channel and Barbie, Prasoon also worked out several public service campaigns like polio, eye donation, education and child adoption. His mantra is simple: if marketers want to crack small-town India, they have to learn to speak their language.

 

Joshi joined McCann Erickson in early 2002 from O&M where he was handling Sprite. Coke insisted that McCann hire him purely on the strength of what they had seen on Sprite. The result, of course, is the now historic 'Thanda matlab Coca Cola' campaign. In his career as an adman, Prasoon has won over 80 awards including CAG, Abby (Bombay ad club), A&M, AAAI and RAPA, and has been named "scriptwriter of the year" for three consecutive years. He was honoured in 1999 with the 'special award' from RAPA - the Hameed Sayani Trophy for all round contribution in advertising.

He has also won two Golden Lions at Cannes for his Coke print campaigns (man in the barber shop and man in the shadow). Ad work apart, he also dabbled in music. He inherited his love for music from his mother who is a singer for All India Radio. A short time under the tutelage of Ustaad Hafeez Ahmed Khan of the Rampur Gharana helped him understand the nuances of classical music. His maiden album as a lyricist, Silk Route's Boondein was a chartbuster, followed by an equally successful Ab Ke Sawaan with Shubha Mudgal. Prasoon feels that the album Mann ke Manjeeré is a very important for him because there are few moments in a writer's career where one can be creative and do something meaningful at the same time. So what next will Prasoon Joshi? Expect the unexpected.