Ire Over Gandhi And The $25,000 Writing Tool

Could it simply be a case of "What Were They Thinking?"

Montblanc, luxury pen designer has launched an advertising campaign featuring of all people, Gandhi. The story comes out on what would have been the 140th anniversary of the birth of the Mahatma - or "Great Soul." The billboard appeared, of ALL places, above a Mumbai slum. Insensitive? That's an understatement. Can I hit you where you hurt? The pen can be yours for a mere $25,000.

"If he had seen this, he would have thrown it away," Amit Modi, secretary of the Sabarmati Ashram, which Gandhi opened 92 years ago, told the Financial Times. "I cannot imagine why anybody has done this." Gandhi's presence in the ad has angered many Indians, especially since he represented simple living and shunned foreign made products. Oliver Goessler, Montblanc's regional director for India, however, sees it differently. "Whatever brings Gandhi and his ideas back to mind can only be good," he told AP.

Just 241 commemorative fountain pens will be sold -- a nod to the number of miles Gandhi walked in his famous 1930 "salt march," a mass protest against salt taxes levied by the British that dealt an early blow to their control over the subcontinent. "It's not an opulent pen. It's a writing instrument that's very pure," Goessler said adding, "The name of Mahatma Gandhi, you have to be careful how you use it. That's why we linked it to two different charity initiatives."

This week Montblanc chief executive Lutz Bethge donated nearly $150,000 to Gandhi's great grandson, Tushar Gandhi, for a foundation that works to improve child nutrition and education. The foundation will get an additional 10,000 to 50,000 rupees or $210 to $1,050 for each pen sold, Goessler said.

Are Montblanc capitalizing on exploitation? Or do they really mean well?

Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org.