Ganapati with a six-pack, a first for brand association

Usually, Lord Ganapati is depicted as plump, with a love for food. Ever thought of him as a fitness enthusiast, one with a six-pack? This was the case with the Ganapati idol at the Suresh Nagar Mitra Mandal in Andheri here. In a first, Ahmedabad-based Zydus Wellness, maker of Nutralite, teamed up with the mandal to focus on health and wellness, the first time brand association during Ganesh Chathurthi extended beyond the traditional banners and hoardings at pandals to theme-based advertising.

"Typically, mandals in every area work on a certain theme during the Ganesh festival," says Aneil Deepak, executive director and head of ideas, DDB Mudra Group, the ad agency of Zydus Wellness. "We were contemplating how to best create an association with the festival. We thought of creating a complete theme around which a pandal could be set up.

Health and wellness was something we zeroed in on after finding some alarming statistics about obesity. Together, India and China account for 15 per cent of the world's obese people, studies show. Creating a health and wellness theme at a Ganesh pandal was a great way of reinforcing the message of a healthy lifestyle," Deepak says.