Can a six-year-old girl comment on politics? You 'butter' believe it

Amul has had one of the longest-running, most successful and most consistently distracting Indian advertising campaigns of recent years. The dairy company's ads are short, funny, satirical comments, translated graphically with the Amul butter girl, who, has grown up quite a bit since the 1960s. 

She still looks six but is actually about 45 years old. Born in the late 1960s the Amul girl has a keen sense of satire that appears to become sharper and faster with age. She now wears skimpy clothes, drapes herself around bar tables and changes billboards at least a couple times a week. Dressed in the same polka-dotted frock and fringe since the day she was born, this iconic child-woman represents home grown dairy brand Amul and is one of the longest-running advertisement campaigns in India. 

Click the image above for Advertising Ka Kamaal's pick of recent Amul ads revealing what's bugged Mumbai most, in this year so far.

What started out as a jovial ad campaign five decades ago soon metamorphosed into a topical one with a political edge. The ‘Utterly Butterly Delicious’ Amul girl promotes butter and always makes punchy, opinionated comment on socio-political issues of the hour. Pun-loving, the ad uses a mix of English and Hindi to get the message across and now copy has also been adapted to regional languages to hit even closer to home.

Taking on film stars, government agencies, politicians, cricket, other brand marketing campaigns and even terrorists, the Amul girl often toddles straight into controversies.

"Indians can never laugh at themselves," says Rahul daCunha, who handles his father’s creation at daCunha Communications. But today, the iconic hoarding is prestigious; you're nobody till she's taken a shot you.