MUMBAI: The baby has turned 60 this year. And it seems to grow only younger by the day. Incepted in 1945, the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), the apex body of the Indian advertising fraternity, has rolled out an impressive ten point agenda to mark the diamond jubilee celebrations.
 
 
AAAI president Srinivasan K Swamy elaborates, "Our Association has served well the cause of advertising and its development in the last 60 years and it is time to review and strengthen the role played by the Association, given the current market dynamics. We are concerned with some of the developments and we are keen to take some corrective action." He also mentioned that, later in the year, the Association is going to put together a battery of top Agency heads in an attempt to brainstorm critical issues related to the industry and find appropriate solutions to them.

Change is in the air. This reflects in the Association's overhauled spirits to cultivate a new corporate identity. The drive has kicked off with the Association now sporting a new logo. On the rationale of the new logo Saatchi & Saatchi managing director and CEO V Shantakumar briefs, "We decided to go for a simple yet modern logo that reflects abbreviation of the Association's name. Drumming up for a common cause has over the years become an important catch phrase, and is relevant to the role which advertising plays. Hence the three 'A's are the support on which the 'drum' base depends. And the 'I' has been turned into the proverbial stick to signal professional empowerment. Together this change of identity and design is evocative of the AAAI's role in modulating the industry's cadence, creating resonant reverb across its membership." The logo has been designed by Elsie Nanji, vice chairman and chief creative officer, Ambience Publicis.
 
 
Significantly, there has been a considerable lack of empirical information on the history of advertising in India. Under its year long diamond jubilee programme the Association has planned to release a well researched book which traces the initial days of advertising in India and its progress over the decades.
 
 
For a successful implementation of its 10 point programme for the diamond jubilee celebrations this year, the Association has entrusted Ramesh Narayan, past president of AAAI, as the chairman of the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations Committee. The prominent activities that the programme proposes are:

- AAAI Publications on Business Practices
- Diamond Jubilee Seminars
- International Advertising Convention
- Evolving a new code for Business Practices
- Socially Relevant Campaigns
- Setting up of a National Advertising Centre