September 28, 2006

Anwar Rammal has no regrets in life, and were he to live it all over again there is nothing he would do differently. “I believe that we should enjoy every minute, every moment of our lives, and that way there is nothing left to regret.” However, the loss of freedom in his artistic pursuits due to business pressures is perhaps the one thing he agrees he does regret, writes Adil Ahmad

Getting the message across has been Anwar Rammal’s stock-in-trade his entire working life. Advertising and public relations, the two wheels of the marketing delivery system, have earned him both fame and fortune. Rammal presides over a PR firm, from where he views the world’s woes with analytical detachment, conjuring solutions in an attempt to facilitate the flow of trade, commerce, industry, and the government. His honorary work involves being a founder-member of the Patients Behbood Society for the Aga Khan University Hospital, a board member of the National Academy of the Performing Arts, and a trustee of the Foundation for Museum of Modern Art.

An artist by inclination and training, Rammal seeks occasional refuge in his free flowing paintings that give him relief from the stress and tension of commercial art, with all its attendant client briefs and deadlines. It is a hectic life that has alienated his wife to the point where she vigorously opposed her sons following in their father’s footsteps; they did so nevertheless.

Anwar Rammal’s partiality to culture and the performing arts is inherited from his father, the late Hassanali G. Rammal, a well-known poet and playwright who used the byline Suman, and wrote in Hindi, Sindhi and Gujrati.

Rammal is a certified Karachi man, with his father and forefathers born, raised and nourished here. He recollects the multicultural Karachi of his youth where all faiths co-existed harmoniously and celebrated together their festivals of Diwali, Christmas and Eid. “We never had any problems, and there was music in every street. There were many groups of wandering singers and musicians up before daybreak, calling upon people to awaken to the goodness of life. Their common message was ‘this is the time when you should all get up and remember God’. That was the time before Partition when Karachi was declared the cleanest city in Asia. There were only two main roads, Bunder Road and Burns Road, and these used to be washed everyday by the fire brigade people. It was all very peaceful,” reminisces Rammal.

As a student Anwar Rammal took part in all sports as well as scouting and debating, and would travel from Kharadar to Garden East on a bicycle to play badminton at which he was particularly good. “Today children need a car to even go to the bathroom!” That is perhaps exaggerating the fact, but the youth today has inherited a far less secure environment and need to be protected and pampered a lot more, the blame for which must be shouldered in part by Rammal’s generation.

“We were perhaps too involved in having a good time and did not see the population explosion coming with its attendant disastrous consequences.” He agrees that planning has been a major shortcoming in the evolution of Karachi, and we are now paying the price for our past neglect.

Returning to the present, why is advertising considered a high-pressure vocation? “It is not a nine-to-five job, and requires a great deal of patience, and a lot of interaction with people. We were either entertaining or being entertained every night, much to my wife’s distress sometimes! Late nights at work are frequent because the client always wants things done yesterday! It’s also true that under-pressure people produce their best work sometimes,” explains Rammal.

Is there an element of burnout? “Not in advertising. The more you work, the better you become. The more problems you solve the more experience you gain. My son Karim’s wife shares his passion for his work, and they have a great relationship.” For himself Rammal swims to unwind, and regularly takes 90 minutes off from work everyday to exercise, likening it to the compulsory taking of medicine.

Anwar Rammal has no regrets in life, and who he to live it all over again there is nothing he would do differently. “I believe that we should enjoy every minute, every moment of our lives, and that way there is nothing left to regret.” However, the loss of freedom in his artistic pursuits due to business pressures is perhaps the one thing he agrees that he does regret. While on a holiday in Boston he did three paintings. He prefers doing abstracts and landscapes on everyday subjects, to the extent of immortalising a trash can. Rammal’s personal acquisitions contain the single largest collection of paintings by Shakeel, whom he credits with an excellent use of pigments and mature colours, brush strokes and choice of subjects.

As a trustee of the Foundation for Museum of Modern Art, Rammal would like to see art develop into an effective tool for representing Pakistan overseas and becoming a source of foreign exchange earnings, if only the Export Promotion Bureau would see it that way. “An art culture should be ingrained at the school level,” he says.

Getting on to slightly more ticklish matters, there is an increasing and urgent focus today on the depleting natural resources of the planet, and the unsustainability of development and consumerism at present levels. Is the advertising industry re-thinking the legitimacy of demand arousal as a prime tool of its trade? “I do not think so,” Rammal answers, “this is a part of economic growth. The greater the consumption, the greater the economic development. One cannot live in isolation and not compete with the world.”

But if the world is racing towards the edge of a cliff, shouldn’t we try and hold back? “The media has a responsibility in this regard. The headlines are full of bad news. The good news and articles on self-improvement are tucked away inside somewhere, if at all. The media has a frontline role in developing within society better values, and not just instilling fear in the hearts of people that drives them onto greater consumption as they strive to divert their attention.”

Has the advertising business contributed to the widening gulf between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’? “Advertising raises aspiration levels and ensures social mobility from lower to upper income groups. It is true that India has a large number of people below the poverty line, but their middle-income groups have achieved critical mass and are swelling with new entrants. Pakistan’s middle class is miniscule by comparison and struggling to maintain itself in the face of inconsistent policies and vested interests.”

Anwar Rammal’s PR firm focuses on environmental conservation issues championed by its clients, but he says that for meaningful impact the government needs to get involved on a much bigger scale. There has to be a 20 years country strategy that everyone’s agreed upon. “In India governments come and go but its policy focus does not change. Here the bureaucracy changes with each government and there is general insecurity. There is no continuity of policy, and that’s our bad luck. We are reactive, and live from day to day.”

Rammal says that he has travelled all around the world and finds there is no country as good as Pakistan. “We have been blessed with everything in this land. The only thing that we have neglected is education. Along with the provincial language, India has made English compulsory right at the village level. The currency of the international market is English. Today they are earning huge foreign exchange through call centres that depend upon a proficiency in the English language. Their policy has continued unchanged through successive government changes.”

How ethical is the exploitation of the female persona in the selling of goods and services? “Poets always speak of love and glorify the female! Romance has always been central to the inspiration of the human species, and it has found its way into advertising as well. In Peshawar we have an un-accepting culture for this sort of promotion, and the female faces on billboards are forcibly erased. Down south we have a more open culture. Advertising caters to the society it operates in, although advertising is a trendsetter and does shape consumer expectations.”

Why has Pakistan’s public relations overseas proved to be such a dismal failure? Is Pakistan not a sufficiently developed product that defies all attempts at marketing and public relations in the global village? “We, as a people, have not been able to promote the good news about Pakistan. We are the best kept tourism secret in the world.

An associate who was visiting from the US inquired what dress code she would have to follow in Karachi. When she arrived she was completely confounded by the liberal atmosphere here! She travelled to Thatta in her jeans, and that was okay. She drove from Lahore to Abottabad and Taxila and there was no problem. She complained that the perception of Pakistan abroad was all wrong.

“In The Boston Globe one finds so many articles on India, but not a single one on Pakistan. I don’t know who should be held responsible for this. Journalists there are willing to print any material coming from Pakistan. Unfortunately there is no material forthcoming. When there is such a large vacuum then those hostile to us have a field day as well.” Rammal feels there has been a systemic breakdown that needs to be rectified. Systems, however, are the anti-thesis of discretionary power and authority upon which our officialdom thrives.

The unprecedented media freedom in recent years has gone a long way in promoting Pakistan’s soft image, and showing the world its bright and modern side. Recently an American girl of Pakistani extraction entered a beauty pageant, and won the title of Miss Media for being the most interviewed and photographed contestant. The majority’s culture in Pakistan, however, remains conservative, where even the act of laughing is considered sinful.

Anwar Rammal’s own partiality to song, music and dance as an effective vehicle for cultural projection overseas, as well as the display of exotic oriental dresses through talented designers using beautiful models, may not accurately reflect the collective Pakistani sensibility. In this department India has a distinctive edge, and its cultural troupes invariably take the world stage by storm.

Rammal disagrees. “In an advertising congress in South Korea the Pakistani delegation took with it Allan Fakir who completely mesmerised the audience. We have the talent that reflects our heritage. We have just not adequately handled it. We need to spot talent in the rural areas that is distinctive of Pakistan, and nurture and promote it.”

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