Posts Tagged ‘Brand Gandhi
Brand Gandhi
Mahatma and the Mont Blanc!
Austerity is the latest buzz word. You read about Netas travelling in trains (still a/c), twits about cattle class, shifting stays from five star hotels to cantonment houses. Amidst all this there comes the most interesting ad.
Mont blanc, a German manufacturer of writing instruments, watches and accessories. A Mont Blanc product will cost you a fortune and now they have introduced a limited edition pen, Mahathma Gandhi limited edition series. A tribute to the Mahatma whose words had the power to move the masses and the soul.
It’s quite interesting that one among world’s leading premium pen manufacturer chose Mahatma who led a simple life and was the greatest advocate of austerity. He became ‘the half naked fakir’ to connect to the people, travelled along with them in unreserved compartments.
Now back to Mahatma Gandhi limited edition series pen, there are two variants to this,
a. 241 numbers, signify the number of kilometers in Dandi march, each pen cost almost Rs. 11 lakhs, where Rs50,000 from each sale will go to charity
b. 3000 numbers, the number of followers in Dandi march, each pen almost cost a lakh and 50 thousands Indian Rupee.
‘Brand Gandhi’ is still powerful, Lets remember the Mahatma on his 141st birth day, if not for the limited editions but for austere life he lived.
“Lage raho Mahatmaji”..
Mahatma Gandhi is being reinvented. This time to suite the ‘generation next’. He is there in T-shirts, coffee mugs and God knows where else. Couple of weeks ago a leading news daily, in its survey conducted among top Business school students and CEOs of multi nationals found out that Bill Gates is bigger icon than Mahatma today. 56% felt Bapu needed a makeover. They want Bapu (in denim jeans) as a hero in a comic book, does good things to people around. “Lage Raho Munnabai”, latest Hindi film, to a certain extend has succeeded in reinventing ‘Mahatma’. In the film the gangster hero tries to solve his problems (and later others also) in Gandhian principles and finds success. The film is all about discovering the “Gandhi” within one self. M.G Parameswaran, Executive Director and CEO, FCB-ULKA Advertising, feels “Brand Gandhi” could be built by connecting to the younger generation in three ways- to be proud of our heritage, to have confidence to face the world and to think different. Mahatma Gandhi has come out of History text books and Film Division reels. One thing is for sure “Modern Mahatma” is here and he is the latest youth icon. “Lage raho Mahatmaji…”
