Ad veteran Bobby Sista is no more

New Delhi: Advertising veteran Shambhu Venkatrao Sista, affectionately known as Bobby Sista of Sista Advertising, passed away on Saturday, July 27.

Sista was highly respected in the industry for his creativity, leadership, and contributions to the field of advertising.

After brief stints at Suhrid-Geigy and Readers Digest, Bobby Sista took the helm of Sista's Private Ltd., an agency founded by his father, the late Venkatrao Sista, one of the pioneers of Indian advertising and among the first Indians to establish a full-fledged advertising agency in 1934. 

In the 1990s, following a trend among Indian-owned ad agencies, Sista's Private Ltd. which was later rebranded as Adarts, was sold to the global ad giant Saatchi & Saatchi in 1998.

Bobby Sista was also known for his contributions to social causes. He founded Population First, a non-governmental organisation focused on addressing population and health issues, with a particular emphasis on women's rights and gender equality. His impact in this field was as significant as his contributions to advertising.

In 2015, Bobby Sista was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI).

Celebrated for his campaigns to bridge the gender divide, Bobby Sista advocated for the inclusion of gender sensitivity as a category in the Abby Awards. In his words, “While I understand that gender sensitivity should be an integral part of any good communication, including advertising, rewarding those who use their creative space to redefine gender roles and stereotypes would, in the long run, institutionalise it as a core value of the industry.”