The Winner Takes It All: What Piyush Pandey’s Life Teaches Us About Belief and Brilliance

What are some of the worst things that can happen in a person’s life? You live with no love, no creativity, no magic. You never know what your true potential was, much less inspire anyone else. 

What, then, are some of the best things that can happen in life? You live fearlessly, outpour in love for your own identity, have a heart so open that every being, every little thing inspires you, and leave behind a legacy so large that every creative person and their mother can draw from it.

And if there was a life lived that fully, it was the life of Piyush Pandey. 

Pandey died at the age of 70, after a 40-year-long stint in advertising. He’d walk into rooms, filled with suits, in his half-buttoned shirts and trousers. He’d tell the corporate folk, who didn’t yet know how to tap into the potential of the Indian mass market, exactly how to speak to them — in their language, respecting their intelligence. He would go on to win their accounts and hearts, and give his clients the world in return — deep emotional resonance with consumers and a market capitalisation beyond what they could imagine. He famously did this for Fevicol, Cadbury, Vodafone, Bajaj, Asian Paints, and more.  

For many creative people in the industry, and all the generations that will come after him, we may never have the opportunity to know, first hand, who Piyush Pandey was. We will never have the privilege of getting to work alongside him, have a conversation with him or receive a gleeful pat on the back. 

Fret not. It’s not all in vain. Here are some timeless lessons that we can take from him, as told by people who have had the privilege of experiencing him first-hand.

Believe in the power of you

When Mani Aiyer and Suresh Mullick asked Pandey to move on to the creative side of the agency, from client servicing, they offered him the post Copy Chief - Indian Languages. They had noticed Pandey was cheating the system, writing copy for clients that other creatives weren’t able to. But Pandey worried that the title just meant ‘glorified translator’. “Does this mean I can never be the creative director of this company?” He asked. “No,” they said. And so it began. Of course, Pandey eventually made his way to Ogilvy’s Chief Creative Officer Worldwide. But from the very beginning, he understood the gravitas of local languages. And he knew he could helm the creative output of the agency.

Years later, during an internal presentation for a Tata Cement pitch, the internal board rubbished an idea that Pandey and his team were working on for over a month. Pandey told them that he “rejected their rejection” and refused to switch up the work.

Reluctantly, the board allowed him to go ahead with the pitch, with the subtext: if you lose it, it's your head on the line. When the pitch ended, Aditya Kashyap, Managing Director of Tata Cement, got up, hugged Pandey, and told him, “the business is yours.” As Pandey wrote in his book ‘Pandeymonium’, that moment also marked a turning point in his career — reinforcing his conviction in, well, having conviction. 

Stand up… for everyone 

Prathap Suthan recalls a time when, as the National Creative Director of Grey, he created the India Shining campaign for the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. The campaign did not fare well in the elections, and was unfairly blamed for the government’s defeat. 

At an Industry meeting, when Suthan arrived, someone from the crowd hollered, “here comes India Shining” and the room burst into laughter. “Piyush was also there,” recalls Suthan. “He looked agitated, stood up, and said, “You laughed at him when he walked in, but let me tell you something — every one of you here pitched for that business. None of you won it. His agency did, and his campaign ran.” 

Then Pandey asked the crowd, “How many of your campaigns will be remembered 50 years from now? Most will be forgotten in two. But India Shining, good or bad, will always be remembered. So do not laugh. He achieved something none of you have.” 

The hall fell silent. Pandey had no reason to do what he did. And that day on, Suthan saw him, not as a colleague or a competitor, but as a true leader of Indian advertising. 

Be a team player

Throughout his career, on and off the camera, Pandey has been asked why he hasn’t yet started his own agency. His answer was always: I’m a team player. Drawing parallels from his beloved game of cricket, he’d say, “A Brian Lara can’t win for the West Indies alone, despite being the best in the world. Then, who am I?”  

Pandey believed that the advertising business was a team sport, not an individual’s game. So, while individual brilliance is needed, that alone cannot win the game. Through his interaction with media and otherwise, he has outpoured love for his agency — for the mentorship and encouragement he received from his seniors. Later in his career when he became ‘The Piyush Pandey’ and people were led to believe that Ogilvy India was all him, he would calmly rubbish that notion: “I have been the face of the agency, but it is the team that has done all the work.”

Live fearlessly 

When we meet well-accomplished individuals, our instinct is to go to them hoping to get answers. More often than not, the best they can do is leave you with more questions. They tell you to go find the answers yourself, and question everything that is already known.

Taking forward the legacy of Piyush Pandey is not about following in his footsteps, or making attempts to mimic his iconic work. In the words of the legend himself, change is inevitable. But something that doesn’t need to change is the spirit. His resonant advice to “young people looking for advice” is to be fearless. 

As long-time contemporary and friend, Prasoon Joshi puts it in his tribute to Pandey, “Piyush made a generation of us believe that you could be yourself — speak in your own language, bring your whole story, your whole self — and still connect with everyone.” 

May his spirit ever shine on. 

Published on: Monday, October 27, 2025, 06:00 AM IST