As the always-cheeky Amul girl turns a sprightly 50, The Quint is reposting a story from its archives for the occasion.

My family’s association with the Amul brand is intensely personal. Way back in 1961, Amul’s advertising agency, ASP (Advertising &Sales Promotion Ltd), was looking for a baby to front their milk powder in a first-of-its-kind ad campaign. They went through hundreds of pictures of babies – 712, to be exact – until ASP’s creative head, Sylvester da Cunha, asked my father, his friend at (and Secretary of) the Advertising Club of Bombay: “you have a baby too, don’t you? Mind if you show me a picture?” My father did, and the rest is history: my sister Shobha became the first ever Amul baby. ASP recorded her selection in an ad in the trade press: