R Balakrishnan (popularly known as Balki) engaged in a no-holds-barred, freewheeling conversation with us in our April issue, about the current state of advertising, why he doesn’t continue as a consultant in any capacity with MullenLowe Lintas, how cricket should be used more creatively, the impact of shorter client-agency partnerships on the industry, why AI will drive a boom in the pharma industry, and a lot more…

Although Balki left MullenLowe Lintas in 2016, his spirit hasn’t detached from the advertising world. 

“I’m an ‘advertising person’ and will always be one so I will continue to miss it for the rest of my life,” he said. While his recent ad work includes films for Everest Masala, Bikaji, and Rajasthan Tourism, often for friends like Amitabh Bachchan, he prefers staying away from professional roles. “It took me a long time to get away from Lowe. It’s not easy to work in a system or with people that you’re so close to,” he disclosed, adding that he didn’t want to be associated in any official capacity.

For Balki, advertising isn’t dead but it has certainly lost its compass. The core issue? A lack of commitment and continuity. “I believe that a brand is built on the rule that the same two people are working on it from the agency and client side,” he explained. “Today, very few people from either side stay long enough. By the time one campaign is over, people switch jobs.” 

In his view, this revolving door of talent has crippled long-term thinking and diluted the impact of brand storytelling.

More worryingly, advertising isn’t leading creative culture anymore. “Professionals now have to keep pace with amateurs. It has to be the other way around,” he said, pointing to the sheer inventiveness of user-generated content on platforms like Instagram reels. For an industry built on creativity, Balki believes this shift from leadership to lagging behind is a dangerous one.

Even the most expensive medium, cricket, isn’t being utilised well according to Balki. 

“Advertising on cricket is the most expensive medium in the country. So why is such trash going out on the most expensive medium?” he asked, visibly dismayed. He still recalls campaigns like Swiggy’s Gulab Jamun uncle and Fogg’s cricket-driven strategy as exemplary. In contrast, today’s cricket ads often lack memorability or meaning. “We can do some crackerjack work on cricket,” he insisted. “That’s where one’s creativity can be noticed.”

For brands, the purpose versus entertainment debate remains unresolved. But Balki is clear on one thing: don’t do either poorly. “There is no purpose for the advertising, forget the ‘brand purpose’,” he said. “An ad has to either entertain, engage, or touch the consumer. Some of the work is just numbing the viewer.”

As the conversation turned to AI, Balki didn’t mince words. “More than climate change, more than Donald Trump or anyone else, the biggest issue we have created is AI,” he warned. While he acknowledges its potential to revolutionise the medical industry, he fears its impact elsewhere could be deeply unsettling. “AI will be so evolved that it won’t be a tool anymore. The humans will be the tools.”

“This is my only fear - what’s the purpose of living after AI?” he added. “The pharma industry will boom because humans will need a lot of medication!” 

For Balki, the existential threat AI poses isn’t science fiction it’s a very real psychological burden. “I attended an AI conference recently - and we could see five billion robots infesting the world in the next 10 years. It will hit us so fast and I’m so scared,” he said, visibly shaken. “This is a topic that will surely require me to take a lot of medication before I can speak about it.”

For more on Balki's reflections, buy the April issue here.