Dr. Vick Sheldon
Dr. Sheldon was bald like a pumpkin, even at the eyebrows.
The Marketing Services group at Karachi provided oversight and support to the field agronomists and was responsible for advertising, sales promotion, and planning. Vick Sheldon, an American from Missouri with a Ph.D. in agronomy, headed the group. Everyone called him Dr. Sheldon.
Dr. Sheldon was bald, bald like a pumpkin, even at the eyebrows, a relentless worker and a hard taskmaster. He wouldn’t hesitate to scold an employee publicly if he was unhappy with something or to backslap him when pleased. More often, he was unhappy. His booming voice could be heard all over the third floor of the Central Hotel Building.
Dr. Sheldon wanted to launch an advertising campaign introducing the Engro brand name to the farming public. The Sales Promotion Officer was responsible for developing a theme.
The Sales Promotion Officer, MH, a tallish man with slick hair combed back, had lived all his life in Karachi and had limited exposure to the country’s rural life or agricultural practices. His previous experience was as a copywriter for cosmetic products. He always came to the office wearing a blue suit, a broad floral tie, and black-and-white two-tone shoes.
One day, Dr. Sheldon called MH to his office and gave him a dressing-down for something he was unhappy with. I watched the scene from my room across the corridor. While Sheldon was loud, almost shouted, MH stood with an apologetic smile, wringing his hands as if washing them. Finally, promising to undo whatever he had done wrong, MH collected his papers from Dr. Sheldon’s desk and started to walk out of his office. But Dr. Sheldon wasn’t finished and shot a verbal arrow at MH’s heels:
“I don’t know where you got those shoes from!”
Dr. Sheldon had no eyebrows but very sharp eyes. He noticed everything.
A few of us in the Marketing Services group would meet for lunch at the nearby Ampi’s restaurant or Grand Café, across from the Metropole Hotel. There, we discussed our projects and problems. Sometimes, we came up with good ideas, sometimes not so good, and sometimes outlandish.
The advertising campaign was the topic of discussion that particular week when MH joined us for lunch with the news that he had thought of, in his words, a revolutionary advertising slogan, which, he believed, would do for Engro fertilizer what “Put a Tiger In Your Tank” had done for Esso’s gasoline. The idea was so good, he said, that he was reluctant to share it even with us. At our prodding, however, he relented and shared his brainchild. It would be a large poster, he said, with a child standing in a lush wheat field, shouting: Abba ke khait main Esso ki khaad!
!ابّا کے کھیت میں ایسو کی کھاد
We all burst out laughing. Translated, it simply meant “Esso’s fertilizer in my dad’s field, but in Urdu, it sounded inelegant at best and obscene at worst. I don’t know what Dr. Sheldon’s reaction would have been, but MH never mentioned the slogan again for as long as he stayed with the company, and it wasn’t very long.
Dr. Sheldon opted for a less exciting but informative advertisement. It showed an agronomist and a salesman advising an Engro dealer in Malir and a small farmer randomly picked up from a nearby farm. An advertising company arranged the photoshoot with Dr. Sheldon as the director. I played the agronomist and Nafees Siddiqui, the salesman.
At the last minute, before the shoot, Sheldon suggested I wear a field cap to look like a field worker. In those days, field caps (baseball caps) were not common in Pakistan. Only attendants at filling stations wore them. We found a filling station in Malir and borrowed a cap from one of the attendants. It was too tight for my head, but I wore it anyway. You didn’t disobey Dr. Sheldon.
The advertisement was splashed in all the Urdu and English papers in Pakistan. This was the first advertisement by Esso Pakistan Fertilizer Co. and the first for any fertilizer in Pakistan.
Looking back, I think we in Esso Pakistan Fertilizer Co. (later Exxon Chemical) played a significant role in bringing the ‘Green- Revolution’ to Pakistan.
Postscript: After seven years of working for the company in various marketing positions, I resigned and joined the Pakistan Foreign Office, but that is another story.
