Montblanc launches Gandhi pen; Karl Marx rumored to be on deck

I saw the ad for Montblanc's new Gandhi pen yesterday — a day before the holiday celebrating the birth of the father of nonviolent resistance Oct. 2.  But I didn't think a ridiculous advertising campaign was enough fodder for an article. Luckily, Andy Buncombe at the Independent decided it did.

"Little is recorded about Mahatma Gandhi's choice of writing implement," Andy said, "but one thing is clear: when the great ascetic set down the ideas that would prompt a generation of Indians to a peaceful revolution, he probably did so with a pen that cost rather less than £14,000."

But that's exactly what Hamburg-based Montblanc plans to charge for a new pen manufactured in his honor (and, presumably, to make a killing off newly rich Indians).

Naturally, Montblanc focuses on Gandhi's skill as a writer and his crusade for peaceful resistance, while ignoring his famed asceticism. But come on. Can anybody miss the fact that the guy's wearing a dhoti (loin cloth) and spinning his own clothes? This is about as far from luxury branding as it gets, right?

Here's Montblanc's version, as per Buncombe's article:

A gold wire entwined by hand around the middle of each pen, said Montblanc, is designed to "evoke the roughly-wound yarn on the spindle with which Gandhi spun every day for half an hour, regardless of where he was or whom he was talking to."

What's next? The Karl Marx commemorative credit card? The Joseph Stalin autographed pillow?

It makes me proud to have left the world of ads and marketing behind.

http://www.globalpost.com/notebook/india/091002/montblanc-launches-gandhi-pen-karl-marx-rumored-be-deck