New Delhi: The news of Piyush Pandey’s passing has reopened an old debate and nudged me into remembering my own short stint in advertising. I must confess [that] I never worked with the late creative director, but I was always aware of his work. Over time, Piyush had become a brand himself — his tone of voice unmistakable. I often found myself guessing whether a campaign or a film bore his touch; given the cadence he brought to copy and the pulse he found in common speech, I was often right.

But this piece isn’t about the genius of Piyush Pandey. It’s about the debate that has followed his death — the question of whether he sold his soul to the ruling right-wing ideology. Many claim he betrayed the liberal ethos of Indian advertising, that the man who once wrote Mile Sur Mera Tumhara later lent his craft to a contrarian ideology.

Advertising has long attracted people with liberal leanings — especially on the creative side — which is ironic for a profession built squarely on capitalism. It’s an industry that thrives on persuasion and profit, not ideology or conviction. The creative departments may have drawn from literature, art, and theatre, but the agencies themselves were, and remain, appendages to the marketplace. Advertising doesn’t own a moral compass; it rents its expertise to whoever pays for........

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