Mont Blanc's $24,763 Mahatma Gandhi Pen on Gandhi Jayanti
Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday celebration has reduced to mere efforts to monetize . Mont Blanc has launched 241 limited edition 18k gold plated $24,763/ each pens. The pen is engraved with Gandhi’s image and tricked out with a saffron-colored mandarin garnet on the clip and a rhodium-plated nib. A billboard put up this week over Mumbai’s teeming slums shows a gaunt Gandhi next to an image of the swanky pen, with golden threads woven around it to represent Gandhi’s spinning wheel. This one is oozing with irony! Gandhi who lived and preached life of minimalism, his name, today, is being used as a sales gimmick for the opulent and could-not-care-less types. Mont Blanc got it all wrong.
Traffic moves past a billboard displaying a portrait of Mohandas Gandhi, the ascetic father of India's independence, besides an image of a Montblanc pen in India.
Internet search giant Google paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on Friday on the 140th anniversary of his birth, replacing the ‘G’ in its colorful logo with a picture of the Indian independence hero. Nice gesture.
The eastern state OF India, a region famous for its traditional weaves, hosted a fashion show last Saturday night to promote homespun fabrics, or khadi, made famous by Mahatma Gandhi in the 1930s.
A popular Mumbai boutique, Bombay Electric is launching a clothing collection by an Indian non-profit organization, Women Weave, made entirely of organic khadi, the hand-spun fabric that Gandhi popularized during India’s struggle for independence.
Today on his 140th birthday, Gandhi’s words, thoughts, and philosophy has been reduced to logos, brand promotion, film stories, and sales gimmicks. All that was profound has lost its relevance.
This is sad. If the world truly believed in Gandhi philosophy, there would be no wars. Just remembering him with a picture on pen or wearing khadi does not mean you are paying a tribute to him.
Well if these kind of promotions create some interest in people to learn more about his thinking then why not? And besides if the earnings from such products is being used for social activities that Gandhiji would approve of.. then why not?
Very good.
Well if these kind of promotions create some interest in people to learn more about his thinking then why not? And besides if the earnings from such products is being used for social activities that Gandhiji would approve of.. then why not?
I do not agree with this .It only means they do not believe in Gandhi philosophy.
This is really sad that for the publicity people are not leaving even our national heroes. We should raise voice against such type of advertising stunts.
I dont agree with it . Money collected from selling that pen is used for charity then its ok. As Gandhiji was very simple person.
Now a days people use Mr.Gandhi’s influence just to get publicity… no one really cares about his principles…
and I absolutely agree with Shailaja (one of the comment)…
It’s interesting to know that 99% of India’s population can’t afford this pen.