DIPWAL KUMAR BOSE NO MORE

Advertising and marketing industry veteran Dipwal Kumar Bose passed away yesterday. With half a century of experience in the advertising space, Bose had worked with several leading companies, such as Hindustan Thompson Associates, JWT Delhi, RKSwamy/BBDO, Ogilvy Outreach, and Hindustan Latex Family Planning Promotion Trust.

DK, as he was popularly known, was a pioneer in the field of social marketing, having started one of the country’s earliest social marketing agencies in Thomson Social. He built a unique predictive model for brands at a time when excel sheets were still aeons away. DK went on to train many media professionals who are today themselves stalwarts in their domains.

DK’s work straddled disparate areas. In 1984, he founded Hindustan Thompson Associate, later moving to RKSwamy/BBDO as Executive Director. Subsequently, DK went on to become President at Ogilvy Outreach. In 2002, he joined as Communication Consultant to Hindustan Latex Family Planning Promotion Trust. He was also the Founder Trustee of the Centre of Advocacy and Research (CFAR) and was also a team member with the Unique Identification Authority of India. For his vast body of work in rural marketing, DK was also honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Rural Marketing Association of India.

DK recently published his autobiography Life Unstoppable on Amazon. Passionate about nature and travelling, he swore by his philosophy of ‘learn from nature’. He passed away in sleep in the intervening night of October 8/9 in a hotel room in Mcleodganj (Himachal Pradesh), where he had gone to take a break from the lockdown.

DK is survived by his son and daughter and their families.