How Ogilvy and its clients turned front pages into farewells for Piyush Pandey

New Delhi: On the morning of October 25, 2025, newspapers across India felt strangely personal. Between the headlines about markets, cricket, and politics, a quiet chorus of gratitude appeared, not in obituaries, but in ads.

Except, these weren’t ads trying to sell products. They were love letters from brands to the man who made them who they are.

When Piyush Pandey passed away on October 24, the advertising world didn’t just lose its creative compass; it lost its storyteller-in-chief. So naturally, the industry picked up its favourite language, advertising, to say goodbye.

Fevicol kept it short, strong, and stuck

Fevicol’s tribute in Hindustan Times was so minimal it could’ve easily been missed, unless, of course, you knew the man behind it. A clean white page. The Fevicol logo. And above it, a thick moustache. Below it, two words: Piyush Pandey.

No line. No copy. No logo tricks. Just silence that spoke louder than a slogan ever could.

It was the kind of ad that would’ve made Piyush grin, simple, clever, and emotionally loaded. The brand he built had once promised “Fevicol ka jod hai, tootega nahi.” Turns out, even death couldn’t break that bond.

Asian Paints turned emotion into a language

“Ghar chup hai magar deewarein jaanti hain. Hamare dil mein Piyush hamesha rehta hain.”

Asian Paints’ tribute in The Economic Times was pure Piyush. Emotional, Hindi-first, and deeply human. The line roughly means, “The house is quiet, but the walls know. Piyush will always live in our hearts.”

You didn’t need to be in advertising to feel that one. It was soft, personal, and full of the same warmth that Piyush brought to every Asian Paints campaign, where homes weren’t just houses but storytellers.

Cadbury added sweetness, the Piyush way

“Here’s to the one who made us believe, kuch khaas hai hum sabhi mein… Thank you, Piyush.”

When The Times of India carried this full-page Cadbury ad, it felt like nostalgia wrapped in purple. 

The brand’s most iconic campaign, “Kuch Khaas Hai Zindagi Mein,” had Piyush’s fingerprints all over it.

Cadbury didn’t change the line; it just flipped the sentiment, from celebrating life’s sweetness to thanking the man who taught India to savour it.

Amul found the right tone, as always

You can always trust Amul to find the perfect mix of emotion and mischief. Their ad featured Piyush’s cartoon avatar, the wide smile, the bushy moustache, and a pen in hand. The line read, “Inka sur sabse mila.”

A small pun, a big emotion. That was Piyush in one frame. Amul didn’t cry. It smiled. Because that’s what Piyush would’ve done.

Ogilvy wrote the most difficult ad of its life

And then there was Ogilvy, the agency that wasn’t just his workplace but his home for over 40 years. Their ad in The Times of India began with a line that instantly tugged at every ad person’s heart: “The most difficult ad of our lives.”

What followed wasn’t a brand statement; it was a memory album. It talked about how Piyush loved morning meetings, Hindi music, and his shirts. How he’d say “Front foot pe khelo” before a presentation, and how his moustache would “enter the room before he did.”

It ended with a line that summed up his spirit: “He will walk in and lead with a joke.”

The same ad appeared in Dainik Bhaskar in Hindi, a nod to Piyush’s lifelong belief that India’s heart speaks best in its mother tongue

When ads became emotions

Across pages, formats, and languages, these tributes carried the same thing, heart. The kind of heart Piyush put into every brand he touched. None of the ads shouted. None tried to trend. They just spoke in the same honest, Indian voice that he had crafted over decades.

Fevicol’s silence. Asian Paints’ poetry. Cadbury’s warmth. Amul’s smile. Ogilvy’s tears. Together, they formed an anthology of affection, a masterclass in simplicity that Piyush himself would’ve loved.

Piyush Pandey didn’t just make ads; he made them talk like us. He taught India that advertising didn’t have to sound imported to sound smart. That real emotion beats clever copy. And that a single line in Hindi can move a billion hearts.

So when he left, the industry didn’t write obituaries. It wrote ads, the way he taught them to.

Each one was a reminder that advertising, at its best, isn’t about selling. It’s about feeling. 

And Piyush made sure India never forgot that.