Just caught the new Maggi ad on TV – which highlights a nice social media experiment (www.meandmeri.in) intended to noodle out customer stories about our deep (25 years and counting) and fond association with this artery and intestine clogging wonder (the avg cal count of a 2-minute pack is around 400 calories and let’s not even think about the salt or msg content).
It was all very pleasant and nostalgic until one of the sequences made a reference to “Me and meri Bombay Floods wali Maggi” – running over images of a cheery samaritan rushing between stranded cars handing out plates of steaming hot Maggi like a waiter at a drive-in restaurant. Indeed, the site even has this (below) allegedly user-generated story about “Me and Meri Tsunami Maggi” headlining a tale of miraculous survival in the Andamans.
GOOD TASTE BHI?
I don’t doubt that these stories are true – the slurpy stuff has saved my life in less dire circumstances.
I do, however question whether it is appropriate for Maggi to be using these tragic reference points to sell its story of service to the nation. Even though the US did, after much navel gazing, allow its comedians to plumb 9/11 as a source of sublimating inspiration, I cannot imagine that its irreverent population would ever accept, say a Timex ad for a watch that kept ticking in the rubble.
