HAPPY LOT: Piyush Pandey, Rajiv Menon, Ravi Deshpande, Manitha Saxena, president, Ad Club Madras, Mohammed Khan and R.V. Rajan, chairman, golden jubilee celebration committee, at Living Legends Night held in Chennai on Wednesday. — Photo: R. S hivaji Rao

CHENNAI: When ad guru Piyush Pandey got Frank Dubier's Quartet to strike up the opening notes of what is probably the most popular song, "Happy Birthday," on Wednesday night, everyone in the audience wondered a bit.

Then, in characteristic style, Mr. Pandey said: "Happy Birthday to you, Ad Club of Madras." The gathering at Hotel Le Meridien burst into spontaneous applause.

It was the best wish the 50-year-old Club received at the Living Legends Night, a precursor to a year of golden jubilee celebrations. If writing ad copy is all about grabbing attention, the Club got it all right on Wednesday night.

The copywriters took a dash of great spirits, added splendid jazz, good food, threw in some stardust and wrapped them together on the storyboard with six Legends of Advertising.

The formula was perfect for the golden jubilee celebrations and the execution had even Mumbaikars wowing it. Like Mohammed Khan, chairman, Nexus Entreprise, one of the ad legends, felicitated that evening. Expressing his delight to be in Chennai at the 50th anniversary of the club, Mr. Khan called it an elegant evening and promised to take a few lessons to Mumbai!

"We are happy that Ad Club Madras is celebrating its golden jubilee during the year when the ad business in general, and more so in Chennai, is witnessing an unprecedented boom in view of the retail explosion and IT industry's phenomenal growth," said R.V. Rajan, chairman, golden jubilee celebrations committee.

A series of events would follow, not only to celebrate the golden jubilee in a fitting manner but also to turn the national focus of the marketing and advertising industry on the Club and its activities.

It was a fine way to start doing that. The Club, started by C.R. Srinivas, the then editor of Swadeshamitran, with just 22 members, now has 1,000 members.

Tracing the history of the Club, Minitha Saxena, its president, said it had hosted annual awards for 25 years, covering the work of all the four Southern States. Wednesday, however, was an occasion to honour six of the best Indian names in advertising — Alyque Padamsee, Piyush Pandey, Mohammed Khan, Rajiv Menon, Ravi Deshpande and Christopher d' Rozario.

Half an hour into the programme, the golden jubilee logo was unveiled with a drum roll, psychedelic lights and an enthusiastic voice-over by M.C. Niladri.

The Brand Portrait team received the cash prize of Rs. 10,000 for the logo design.

It will handle the creative aspects of all events of the celebrations.

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