How the Utterly Butterly Girl Became the Voice of a Nation

"Utterly Butterly delicious… Amul!". The billboards, the newspapers, and social media have unbiased and amusing taglines by the Amul Girl, wherein she changes herself according to the message she gives. She comments on events big and small, in a way that is light and funny. But, how did this little girl even come into this world of advertisement? Let's hear her story.

The Amul Girl: India's advertising icon; image source: musebyclio

A round and cherubic face, wide round eyes, glossy blue hair tied back with a red polka-dotted bow similar to her dress. Wearing subtle mischief on her face, she holds a slice of bread with butter on it. This is none other than the Amul Girl, the image of whom has been imprinted in our minds since childhood? She smartly changes her signature attire as the situation demands. On one hand, her tongue-in-cheek appearance symbolizes how delicious the butter is, and on the other, it is symbolic of her playful commentary on events happening in India.

In the the early days of Amul, television and print were expensive, and hence the marketing of products was done as hoardings and advertisements were made accordingly. In 1966, Dr. Verghese Kurien, the head of Amul, decided to give the responsibility of designing an ad campaign for Amul to daCunha Communication in Mumbai. Mr. Sylvester da Cunha, the head of daCunha Communications, along with the art director Eustace Fernandes decided that their ad should make its way into the hearts of housewives and straight to the dining table of every household in India. Thinking that a cute little girl would be the best pick for it, they designed the Amul Girl. Adding to it, the catchy tagline was the result of a discussion between Sylvester daCunha and his wife Nisha, who were initially dubious about the word 'butterly' as it was ungrammatical. But the first ad was a hit and history was made.

The first milk plant at Anand; image source: amuldairy.com

They did not look back after that. After one year, daCunha thought about giving a solid voice to the ad. This was the inception of the topical advertisements of Amul. In 1969, the first ever topical ad of Amul was based on the event of the Hare Rama Hare Krishna movement in Mumbai, and the ad goes like this 'Hurry Amul! Hurry Butter! Hurry, Hurry!'—a riff on the calls of "Hare Rama, Hare Krishna" that the movement was famous for.

The Amul Girl has been the face of Amul for more than fifty years, making it one of India's longest-running advertisement campaigns.

The first Amul advertisement, image source: Musebyclio

Amul has been one of the oldest cooperative brands in India. It all started in the Kheda village in Gujarat, where the farmers used to milk buffaloes and did farming to earn their livelihood. There was no vegetable production during the off-season and it became tricky for the farmers to earn their livelihood, but they still could make money by selling milk. As milk was perishable, it had to be consumed within a day. Thus, the farmers were at a loss. With all this going on, the farmers, with the help of Sardar Patel and Morarjibhai Desai, formed a cooperative in a place named Anand, in Gujarat, the main objective of which was to provide marketing facilities for the milk producers of the district. Later, as time passed, they also set up a plant for other milk products like butter, cheese ghee, and others. The milk producers union suggested the name 'Amul', which comes from the Sanskrit word 'amulya', meaning 'priceless'. AMUL is also the abbreviation for Anand Milk Union Limited.

The 1st topical Amul ad-1969; Image source: paulwriter.com

Rahul daCunha, the son of Sylvester daCunha, is responsible for the marketing today. He and his design team make sure that the ads make people smile, keeping things light and enjoyable. The team is capable of punning in both English and Hindi. They take up current topics related not only to sports, festivals, Bollywood, and the politics of India but also to larger global events.

Today, social media has made the Amul Girl more easily reachable to a greater mass. And, to leave you with a parting gift, anyone who wants to revive their memories of all the tongue-in-cheek comments of our Amul Girl or has missed them all these years can go through a book named Amul's India, a volume about the history of the Amul campaigns narrated through essays and interviews.