Piyush Pandey, the creative mind behind some of India’s most loved ads, died on Thursday, October 23, 2025. He was 70 years old. News of his passing spread fast across the ad world, with his sister Ila Arun confirming it in a family statement. Pandey had been in a coma for about a month before his death.
Born in 1955 in Jaipur, Pandey grew up in a big family with nine siblings, including filmmaker Prasoon Pandey and singer Ila Arun. He went to St. Xavier’s School in Jaipur and earned a postgraduate degree in history from St. Stephen’s College in Delhi.
Before ads, he tried his hand at cricket, tasting tea, and building sites. At age 27, he joined Ogilvy India in 1982 as a client service executive. 6 years later, he switched to the creative side, where he shone.Over 43 years at Ogilvy, Pandey rose to Chief Creative Officer Worldwide in 2019 and Executive Chairman for India. He turned the agency into a global winner, grabbing awards left and right.
In 2018, he and brother Prasoon became the first Asians to win the Lion of St. Mark at Cannes Lions, a top honor for lifetime work. In 2016, India gave him the Padma Shri award. Last year, in 2024, he got the LIA Legend Award for his big impact.Pandey’s big trick? He made ads talk like real Indians. Back then, most ads were in stiff English. He brought in Hindi words, street jokes, and family feels.
His first big win was a print ad for Sunlight detergent. Then came hits like Asian Paints’ “Har khushi mein rang laaye” in 1995, which made painting fun for homes. Cadbury’s “Kuch meetha ho jaaye” in 2003 turned chocolate into a happy ritual—sales jumped 30% that year. Fevicol’s glue ads from 1999 showed unbreakable bonds with funny twists, running for over 20 years. Hutch’s “Yeh dil maange more” in 2003 hooked millions before it became Vodafone. And the ZooZoo characters for Vodafone in 2009? They won 15 awards and boosted brand recall by 25%, per Nielsen data.He even shaped politics with “Ab ki baar, Modi sarkar” in 2014, a slogan that stuck during elections.
But Pandey stayed humble. A cricket fan, he called ads a team game. “One star can’t win alone,” he said in a 2015 interview. In 2023, he stepped down as chairman but stayed on as advisor.Tributes poured in Friday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called him a “genius storyteller” on X. Ogilvy CEO Richard Brett said, “He built our soul.” Ad pros like Prasoon Joshi tweeted, “You taught us to listen to the streets.”His funeral is set for October 25 at 5:30 p.m. in Mumbai. Pandey leaves behind his wife, Anuja, two kids, and a changed ad world.
Stats show his campaigns reached over 500 million Indians yearly in peak years, per industry reports. As one colleague put it, “He didn’t just sell brands. He made them family.”
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