Frank Simoes

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Frank Simoes
Born	Mumbai, India
Occupation	Writer
Writing period	20th Century

Frank Simoes (b. 1937 - d.2002) was an Indian writer born in Mumbai. He studied at St. Mary's School in Mumbai and began his career as a writer with the Times of India, where his first article was published. After his initial foray into writing, he began to have his articles published fairly regularly.

Simoes was of Goan ancestry and left India at 19 to serve as a deckhand on a Japanese trading ship and travelled to Genoa, and later spent time in Europe doing odd jobs of all kinds. Upon his return to India, he got a job with Ogilvy & Mather as a copy trainee, and stayed with them thirteen years, three as a board director. He then started Frank Simoes Advertising Private Limited in 1970 and ran it for over twenty years. His work for clients such as Liberty Shirts, Vimal, Raymond Suitings and the Taj Mahal Hotel group were path-breaking and legendary

He then retired from advertising and devoted his full time to writing. His first book, Sale Forward Voyager, a biography of Goan industrialist Vasudev Salgaocar, was published in 1991 and gained him nation-wide recognition. Simoes was elected to the Hall of Fame at the National Awards for Excellence in Advertising 1991 in Kolkata. His best known work remains Glad Seasons in Goa, a work on Goa.

Simoes died of cardiac arrest on August 26, 2002. He had been suffering from cancer at the time. He is remembered as one of India's most respected admen.

To the people who worked for him Frank was a mentor, and to his readers he remains a writer of great talent and humour. To his clients he is remembered as a creative genious, He brought art into the business of advertisng. His work for the Taj Hotels made it South Asia's number one luxury hotel brand. His television commercials for the Taj in his beloved Goa turned marketing gurus on their heads. Through green paddy fields a priest carries the cross in a procession blessing the harvest as the rain washes the earth and the sea kisses the sands of Goa. A man in his sundays best cycles down a hamlet an umbrella in one hand, holding flowers and handlebar in the other. A child laughs as he his swirled in the air and sea and sky and green become one, and the catamaran fisherman laughs along with the boy. The voice over comes,introducing Goa to the world:

'Remember the innocence you felt as a child, the sense of wonder at the beauty of the world, the sense of goodness in other human beings, when affection and laughter came easily, the innocence lost in the passage of years and the world of affairs, the innocence you feel must somewhere, sometimes be regained.Come back to Goa.' The Taj logo. Fade out. This is how Frank brought art into business. The commercial made Goa synonymous with the Taj. He once said that it isn't about how much money you have but how you spend it that defines who you are. It wan't uncommon for his directors to receive very generous year end bonuses like the apartment one of his senior executives received as a bonus.

Malavika Sanghvi wrote in her column in The Times: "The insecurity of mediocrity, and the largesse of genius. These were the thoughts that engaged me when I learnt that Frank Simoes had died on Sunday..Early on in his career he had established himself as the finest copywriter of his era; won every accolade, climbed every mountain, conquered every vista. He could have covered himself with the laurels of the past, coasted along on his early victories, going on doing the same things endlessly. But no, he realised he had nothing left to prove. No territories to protect. No ego to defend. He didn't strut, neither did he swagger, nor blow his own trumpet. He just moved on. Abdicating his throne to the multitudes of the mediocre. Who strutted, who swaggered, who blew their own trumpets. Ah, the insecurity of the mediocre, and the largesse of genius."