MDH masala. Kitchen King or Deghi Mirch...asli masaley such, such...goes the line in the ad that shows a gnarled senile man as the founder of MDH masalas. Ok so they did not have anything unique to say but the legacy it had since 1912. Ok they did not go the celebrity route like Anzu Hing which has Jayaprada as its endorser. They chose the founder to add credibility - Mahashaya Dharampal Ji - and hence the acronym. So far so good.
My mom always told me that MDH stood for Mahasheyan di Hatti - a punjabi phrase, loosely translated, means congregation of the rich or a society of nobles. So the rich tradition and rich masalas still made sense.
But what I saw today appalled me first. Then I was bemused. Because in a way, the ad that I saw simply imitates life. What I saw was a brazen attribution of MDH to Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati - the founder of Arya Samaj. The ad did not explain much but associated Dharampalji's great belief in Dayanand Saraswati. What all marketers do to peddle a masala!!!
But the poor marketer has learnt from our politicians that one can create a unique magical equation by adding marketing to religion.
A quick Google search revealed that Dharampalji has contributed "20-25 lac rupees" for the construction of a yet incomplete Satyarth Prakash Stambha and a Navlakha Mahal in Udaipur. And the project faces many roadblocks from Govt clearance to lack of funds.
But it won't be long before some clever marketing suit in MDH arrogates Arya Samaj to itself! After all Arya Samaj also literally means Society of Nobles. That will be the day when the terms marketing and politics would be used interchangeably.
wow i have to check out the ad :) sounds horribly messed up.
Posted by: sonaljhuj | November 17, 2009 at 11:50 AM