Indiantelevision.com Team

(14 August 2007 1:10 pm)

NEW DELHI: India has more Godly brand ambassadors for consumer goods than anywhere else in the world, reveals an archival exhibition titled ‘India in the Making – An Historical Epic III’ organised by Osian’s Connoisseurs of Art.

The exhibition that was held in the capital highlighted the fact that Gods had moved out of the temples to posters and newspaper advertisements to help sell consumer goods almost a century ago.

In fact, these brand ambassadors are unique as they do not charge any fee for advertising consumer or other goods, unlike the film stars who make millions.

Lord Krishna, Goddesses Saraswati and Lakshmi, Lord Ganapati and other Gods have helped sell brands like hair oils, soaps, medicines and gripe water, through advertisements and poster calendars. Even today, the images of Gods are used to advertise fire crackers, candles and eatables like butter.

There is a calendar of Woodward Gripe Water dated 1932 saying ‘Keeps Baby Well’ showing Lord Krishna as the baby, a 1938 calendar with Lord Vishnu and his consort issued by an Indian distributor of foreign medicines. Goddess Saraswati advertising Vinolia White Rose soap dated 1933, a 1937 calendar advertising Musk-Raj toilet soap with the help of Lord Rama with Laxman and Sita, Lord Krishna and Radha on a calendar of 1937 issued by Sunlight Soap among others.

Interestingly, even the photographs of national leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru have been used in posters advertising consumer items. For example, there is an advertisement showing Gandhi standing on the head of a multi-headed snake in the form of Kalia-Mardan.

Osian’s Connoisseurs of Art chairman Neville Tuli said, "The advertisements used the Gods as brand ambassadors as no other nation did. The sense of design for the advertisements and the manner with which our Gods are utilized to sell and become brand ambassadors is unique."

He told Indiantelevision.com that "Krishna must have endorsed more hair oil and Saraswati more soap than the rest of the world put together."

At a time when literacy levels were low, it was important to convey the message of nationalism to the people. Hence the exhibition also shows how artists and cartoonists drew images of Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi attempting to keep the ‘boat’ (representing India) afloat after the British had left, or showed these leaders as playing the kinds of roles Gods and Goddesses had played in the interest of mankind.

Rare photographs, sketches, cartoons, and film publicity material are on display in the exhibition that will continue till 25 August. Tuli claimed that this was the largest exhibition of archival material ever to be shown anywhere in the world.