Mascot Monday: How a twirling girl helped Nirma outshine competition

Choosing a mascot can be a mind-boggling task for new brands since the icon has to represent it in letter and spirit. Naturally, it’s a job that requires a lot of planning and thought. When Nirma owner Karsanbhai Patel had to come up with one for his fledgeling washing powder brand in the 70s, it was a decision he took from the heart.

The Nirma mascot or the “twirling girl”, who is an integral part of India’s advertising heritage, is in fact, inspired by Patel’s late daughter Nirupama.

The story of Nirma

Nirma will forever be known as the David who felled HUL’s Goliath Surf by offering the Indian middle class a value-for-money proposition. Sold at a mere Rs 3.5 per kilo, Nirma dethroned Surf that was priced at Rs 13 for the same amount.

Patel, a chemist by profession, created the powder with simple soda ash and a few other ingredients. Curious to know whether he could get people to buy it, he wheeled around on his bicycle, selling the powder door-to-door out of nondescript polythene bags. He did find success and Nirma eventually made it to the markets in the 70s.

But how will people resonate with the brand? Patel decided to give it a name and a mascot, and he chose the ones that were closest to his heart.

He fashioned “Nirma” from his daughter’s name “Nirupama” and even featured her as the mascot of the new brand.

The icon is a little girl in a bright white dress who appears to twirl on the Nirma packet. She is portrayed with thick, lustrous hair adorned with a bow. She wears a white twirly dress with polka dots on it. The moppet completes her look with black Marie Jane-type shoes and white socks. If you look closely, a small bindi adorns her face. Patel took the help of a signboard painter to create the mascot, inspired by his beloved daughter.

Later, the colourised version of the mascot shows that her immaculate white dress has accents of blue in it and she wears a blue pair of socks.

The Nirma girl also made her way into many ads of the brand. The ads often end with a girl twirling in a white dress and then merging with Nirma’s icon. She is closely associated with the brand’s jingle “Washing powder Nirma”, which conjures up images of the mascot.

Legacy

The Nirma Girl is undoubtedly one of India’s greatest advertising legacies, ranking with unforgettable mascots like the Amul Girl, Lijjat Bunny and the Onida Devil.

The mascot helped the brand create a distinct identity, eventually helping Nirma beat Surf in the 80s.

Over the years, the Nirma saw many iterations, but the girl remained a constant. The brand also championed “femvertising” through its mascot and its ads, empowering women to associate with the product.

However, things changed when Patel’s son Hiren K Patel took the reins of the company as MD in 2006. Nirma decided to phase out the mascot from all of its ads, owing to a personal tragedy that took place decades ago. The eponymous “Nirma” or Nirumpama, Patel senior’s daughter, had passed tragically in a car accident. Apocryphal accounts on the internet say that she was struck down by a car when she was returning home from school, and that the company and the mascot were tributes to her memory.

As a sign of respect for the departed, the company decided to stop showcasing the twirling girl in the ads, but retained her likeness on all the product packets.

The moppet, along with the Nirma jingle, holds a special place in the cultural zeitgeist of India, inspires instant recall and has high nostalgia value.

Not too long ago, actress Swara Bhaskar was compared to the mascot when she wore a short, white dress with a puffed skirt.

Despite her absence from ads these days, the Nirma Girl continues to be a beloved icon for Indians.