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Ambience’s Mahesh Parab joins McCann-Erickson
At Ambience, Parab worked on Marico, Bisleri, Nerolac, Lakme Elle 18, Raymond’s Be: and Infomedia Yellow Pages. Parab was placed at No. 5 in the Campaign Brief Asia creative rankings this year
Mahesh Parab, art director, Ambience Publicis, Mumbai, has joined McCann-Erickson, Mumbai, as creative team leader (equivalent to creative group head). He will report to the creative director duo at McCann, Manish Bhatt and Raghu Bhat. He had earlier worked with them at Ambience, before the duo joined McCann.
Bhatt remarks, “There are two kinds of art directors. The first kind is good at their craft. The second one can not only do that, but also ideate. Parab is the second kind.”
“Parab comes from a small town background, so he has his ideas firmly rooted in ground reality,” continues Bhatt. “On the other hand, he is equally capable of building work that appeals abroad.”
A testimonial to that is the selection of Parab’s work on the Planet M DVD Collection in the D&AD Annual and the One Show Annual. Parab was also ranked No. 5 and No. 9 in the Campaign Brief Asia creative rankings in 2006 and 2005, respectively.
Parab remarks, “I spent three years at Ambience and, during my early years there, I gelled well with Manish and Raghu. They have always inspired me and I am quite comfortable with their working style. I thought it was time that we all worked together again.”
Parab also feels that McCann is an agency that does a lot of visible work and has a number of big brands in its kitty, which will translate into a bigger role for him.
Parab started off as a visualiser at daCunha Communications, where he worked on Amul, LIC and UTV. He moved on to Ambience, where he worked on Marico, Bisleri, Nerolac, Lakme Elle 18, Raymond’s Be: and Infomedia Yellow Pages (then Tata Press Yellow Pages).
His most memorable work, till date, has been for Elle 18’s Sparkle collection. Parab was faced with the task of bringing out the sparkle quality of the product. He and his team created a print campaign with several ads in which a person used the product in a rather unique manner. One ad showed a person in total darkness, looking at his watch in the light reflected from his nails (the Sparkle nail polish effect). Another one had a lady reading a magazine in total darkness, again with the help of her nails.
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