APPRECIATION

Melville Assauw:

True icon in advertising field

Malville Joseph Assauw, passed away on June 23. I had known for some time that Mel had been seriously ill and the news of his demise should not have been a surprise. But it was. The sad news cast a shadow of gloom and carved a deep niche of sorrow in the hearts of those, such as myself, who loved and respected him.

I often met Mel at Jonathan Studio where in the company Mervyn Wijeratne (my wife's cousin) we had many a pleasant and jovial chat. This was many decades ago. Mervyn had given Mel a small area to do his art work and from such small beginnings he progressed to be a true icon in the field of advertising in an era which saw the likes of radio and media personalities. Tim Horshington, Greg Roskowski, and others.

Mel was educated at St Peter's College, Colombo. He took to advertising firstly as Director of International Advertising Services (IAS) and later as its Creative Director, in addition to being the Creative Director of Prachards, a subsidiary of IAS. The natural outcome of all these early endeavours was for Melville to form his own Company - Mel Ads Ltd. - a family business which now counts 40 years in the field of advertising. Mel's initiative and rive and, most importantly, the goodwill that the engendered, made him expand into other fields. He initiated the first ever Teledrama in Sri Lanka: 'DIMUTHU MUTHU', in addition to producing many other publications for the local and public sector. Melville became President of the Four "A" in Sri Lanka during the year 1986 - 1988, and headed the International Advertising Association (IAA - Sri Lanka Chapter) in 1999 -2001.

Being the man that he was, ever willing to help those less fortunate, he became a Rotarian and was President of his Club in 1987 - 1988, and subsequently became District Governor for Sri Lanka in 1994 - 1995. All the above commitments took up much of his time, but of course he also had to direct his energies to his own firm.

There is something of a paradox here in that Mel Ads was a great success and at times also a failure. There were those who joined him as raw beginners, worked hard and later went on to do their own things. He had no problem with these people. Sadly, however, there were also a few unscrupulous opportunists who sought his help, joined his firm, virtually sucked his brains and lift him surreptitiously in an underhand manner taking some Mel Ads accounts. Mel certainly had business acumen. His kindly disposition also had with it a degree of naivete which prevented him from quickly identifying those who would use him solely to further their own agendas. These events cause him untold anguish and further exacerbated his failing health. Mercifully, with the help of his wife Bernie and daughter Maryse, who became Managing Director, and also with the invaluable administrative expertise of a lifelong friend who stepped into work full time more as a labour of love, there was a turnaround and Mel lived to see his Mel Ads (Pvt) Ltd on a firm footing once more.

If one took his accomplishments in the pioneering field of advertising to be the high watermark in his life and his only achievement, this would be a mistake.

Melville was a man of many talents. He was an oil painter of considerable repute, a landscape artist, a man interested in the culinary arts and immune to the overwhelming influence of TV, much preferring to read a good book. Mel's abiding interest was painting. He admired the works of David Paynter, Ivor Baptist, and Donald Ramanayake, among others, but would not imitate them. He often lamented that his other commitments left him with little time to indulge in his passion for painting but nonetheless managed to have four solo Exhibitions of his work. He generously donated several of his paintings for relief work in Indonesia. Above everything else, Melville Assauw was a deeply religious man.

We all grieve his passing, but more importantly rejoice in having had the opportunity of knowing such a good, decent and accomplished man.

Jerome Crusz