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For years, many believed that the inspiration behind the iconic Amul Girl was politician Shashi Tharoor’s sister, Shobha Tharoor.

And recently, a controversy sparked when Branding and Marketing expert Sanjay Arora posted a reel on the Amul Girl… claiming that “Amul Girl is inspired by Shashi Tharoor’s sister Shobha, who was just 10 months old in 1966.”

Shobha Tharoor commented on Sanjay’s reel, and later even tweeted that she was the “first Amul Girl.”
But she did not clearly say whether the inspiration for the Amul Girl actually came from her or not…

Since people seemed confused and uncomfortable on his reel, Sanjay then shared a screenshot of his research.

When we checked, it appeared that the screenshot came from Perplexity AI… though we can’t be 100% sure.
(And well, it’s true that every AI sometimes makes blunders.)

Sanjay also mentioned Wikipedia as part of his research base — which again, is not really considered a fully credible source of information.

After this, the Tharoor sisters, Shobha and Smita, both said that they were the first and second “Amul babies.”

But then came Amul’s official clarification that settled the debate —

Amul commented on one of Sanjay’s Instagram posts:
“We wish to clarify the Amul Girl illustration is not influenced by Ms. Shobha Tharoor. She was created by Mr. Sylvester daCunha and illustrator Mr. Eustace Fernandes.”

So now the question remains — who really is the inspiration behind the world’s longest-running mascot?

If you know, share with us in the comments!

[CONTINUED IN COMMENTS...]

#Amul #ShashiTharoor #AmulGirl #Mascot #Controversy #Branding #Marketing #GUINNESSWORLDRECORD

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Transcript
00:00What does this girl and Shashi Tharoor have in common?
00:08And no, this isn't a joke.
00:10The face of India's most famous butter girl, the cheeky blue-haired Amul mascot was inspired by do you know whom?
00:18Shoba Tharoor, Shashi Tharoor's young baby sister.
00:21Yet, the queen of funds came from the sister of the king of vocabulary.
00:30Back in 1996, Amul was the underdog.
00:57The butter market was ruled by Polsun with its sweet, soft, polite mascot.
01:02Amul's marketing head, Sylvester Dakuna, wanted something spicier.
01:06So his team sifted through 700 photographs until the shotlets did the perfect one with the impish grin.
01:12And that was the 10-month-old Shoba Tharoor.
01:15Artist Eustace Fernandez drew her with blue hair, polka dots and eyes that would get away with saying anything.
01:22And then came the tagline, utterly butterly delicious.
01:26But that very mistake launched India's longest-running mascot Anna tagline, which incidentally was written by Misha, Sylvester's wife.
01:33Butterly wasn't even a word, but it started a quirky twist which made people look twice and smile.
01:40And that's what marketing nerds called novelty bonus.
01:43And this time, it was branding gold.
01:45This wasn't about butter.
01:47The Amul girl became India's witty cultural commentator, poking fun at politics, cricket, Bollywood and everything in between.
01:55Over 50 years later, she holds the Guinness World Record for the longest-running ad campaign.
02:00She wasn't just a mascot.
02:02She became a trusted voice that made us feel seen.
02:05She turns headlines into smile.
02:07That's not just branding.
02:08That's cultural citizenship.
02:10Here's the genius.
02:11They took something imperfect.
02:12A made-up word, a mischievous face.
02:14And made it iconic through consistency and relevance.
02:18Psychologists call it the novelty factor, something that breaks the pattern.
02:22But Amul kept her fresh by tying her to headlines.
02:30Chapter 4 3
02:31And that's a cool voice that forces us to change the timing of that.
02:35And that's a cool voice and that's a great part.
02:40Here I see.
02:43That's just a cool voice.
02:44Here you go.
02:45You can see.
02:47Let's see.
02:49When I put the values together.
02:52You can see my jaw and remove that.
02:55It's a cool voice that was Rink.
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