Religion Marketing!

This is not the latest marketing jargon! Of late, while zipping through TV channels during my post-MBA and pre-job break, I came across a few regional and national channels beaming shows (akin to the Telebrands shows). But the products being advertised are not the traditional consumer products or services for that matter. Some companies have realized that Hindu religious feelings which border on superstition for most Indian housewives (besides the uneducated and gullible men from small towns) can be leveraged to sell products like Shri Yantra, Rudraksh etc. These products (if you can call them so) were traditionally given by the saints/sanyasis to their devotees since centuries to ameliorate suffering of all kinds. It was given and accepted as something that had divine blessings in it. But with commercialisation of everything else around us, one can’t be surprised if somebody tries to commercialise God and make money in His name.

It’s not that there is no precedence for things like this in India. Over the past three decades, many fake sadhus and babas have duped the gullible and unassuming Indian public of their hard-earned money, all in the name of faith. We have had scores of Nithyanandas in India now and people still fall for such people and products with the belief that they will help them to get rid of their troubles. Nothing can be further from the truth.

Life is not rosy. In fact, everyone’s life has problems and the best way to deal with them is to be optimistic and honestly try to find solutions instead of buying such products. I don’t know if Rudrakshs and Shri Yantras of yore had any divine blessings or not but I can tell for sure that the modern Rudrakshs and Shri Yantras being sold via TV shows have devil’s blessings (which would certainly strip people of their cash).
It is high time the ASCI took some stringent action against companies which advertise such products. Awareness needs to be created to prevent more people from being hoodwinked and cheated of their money.