Adland Rockstars: Rishabh Dave

This week's Adland Rockstar is Rishabh Dave, copy supervisor, Law & Kenneth.

How did you get into advertising?
Honestly, I was unsure of what I wanted to do in life. I'm originally from Baroda. After I graduated, I did a course in mass communication and tried journalism (worked at The Times of India, Ahmedabad), but I didn’t like it. Till then I wasn’t much into reading and writing. I used to play a lot of football though. But I'd decided that writing is something I wanted to do and therefore I decided to give it a shot. I came to Bombay. A friend of mine, who is a designer, had told me that St Luke’s is doing some major restructuring, so they would probably be hiring. I landed up here, gave a copy test and I’ve been here since the past four years.

What were your first impressions of advertising?
I'd heard that people would be far more cooler than I had been meeting in Baroda (which is not true entirely). And I was happy to be paid to do something which I’m probably good at. So it was fun and I was happy to be in advertising.

Describe your first week at the agency.
The first week was like being born – I was looking around and trying to understand things. I remember on the first day, I was made to do a brochure for a furniture brand. I was told that if not done well, the client would probably sack us. So my art partner and myself sat together to discuss what we could do and realised that furniture is not something 'non-living', it is something on which people create memories. The first day, I worked till 2am in the morning. It paid off. The client liked the brochure.

What is one thing you like about your job?
One of the clients I work on is Hungama.com. A lot of the communication we do for them is very interactive. For example, if I do a web-banner, within an hour of its going live, I’ll know whether it is working or not. So it is the best response one can get. Also I get to do a lot of keeda stuff on Hungama, everyday we get to do something new. I've been with Law & Kenneth for four years. It’s the people at this agency that have kept me here, its like a family. Also, the presence of some super brands!

What is one thing that you don’t like about your job?
At times, we’re too anal about things. That's something I don't like. Being in the business of creativity, we let business rule creativity. This basically means that if a campaign is not giving me numbers, it is not considered to be a good campaign.

One person in advertising you’d like to have dinner with.
Dan Wieden and Piyush Pandey (if there’s a second option).

One person outside advertising you’d like to have dinner with.
Natalie Portman and Lemmy Kilmister of the band Motorhead. Oh and Batman!

If you weren’t in advertising, what would you be doing?
I’d be playing football.

Who is your favourite bouncing board for ideas in office?
Charles Victor, my national creative director and Rahul Nangia, my creative director.

Which campaigns would you put up in your hall of fame?
Real men of Genius (Budweiser) – the radio one, the poster for Levi’s jeans – When the World Zigs, Zag by BBH. I’d also put up the Oasis Album launch by W+K.

Your favourite films?
Batman Begins, Garden State and As Good As It Gets.

Your favourite books?
Where the Suckers Moon – the life and death of an advertising campaign, Sherlock Holmes (the entire series) and I also like this author Kunal Basu. He creates an environment and ambience, he takes you there and also he has a tendency to link everything to communism. Even in The Japanese Wife – every story has some link to communism. Which is very true, if you’re a Bengali!

Three objects you’d want with you on a deserted island.
Football, a notepad and lots of Batman comics.

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Missed any of our previous Adland Rockstars? View them below.

Denise D'silva, Angud, Abha Dhasmana, Sneh Nihalani, Sangeeta Velegar, Mayur Varma, Prajato Guha Thakurta, Sagar Kapoor, Meera Ganapathy, Ira Gupta, Timsy Gupta, Simone Patrick, Preeti Verma, Priti Rodricks, Ashwin Varkey, Macklin Lacerda, Hanif Kureshi, Siddhi Yadav, Parul Soni, Amod Dani, Rasika Banerjee, Arnab Biswas, Keegan Pinto, Kartik Smetacek, Umma Saini, Varun Mehta, Shormishtha Mukherjee,Raylin Valles, Swati Katakam, Anajana Gopal, Anu Joseph, Manavjit Mohil, Akshay Kapnadak, Neha Mitra, Kainaz Karmakar, Malvika Mehra