MUMBAI: In order to deal with the issue of environmental pollution that takes place post emersion every year during ‘Ganesh Chaturthi in Mumbai, Ogilvy has joined hands with NGO Sprouts Environment to come up with the concept of fish friendly Ganesha.

The idea is to promote non toxic Ganesha idols crafted from vegetarian fish food that is edible and safe for fish consumption.   The cosmetic surface of the idols is also painted with natural material and colours such as multani mitti, turmeric powder and geru. 

 “What a lovely idea to make a contribution to a greener environment,” said Ogilvy South Asia executive chairman and creative director Piyush Pandey.

Ogilvy India national creative director Rajiv Rao added, “This is a great initiative by the NGO Sprouts Environment Trust, We are really proud to be a part of this beautiful idea. Destruction of marine life has been a cause for much concern to some of us. We hope that someday the efforts of this initiative will make us more aware and urge us to act towards protecting/saving our seas.”

Ogilvy launched the idea with the hashtag #GodSaveTheOcean on Facebook and Twitter followed by an overwhelming response from the netizen including calls from over 19 cities in India. Enquiries from London, Dubai and Netherlands followed.  Since this was a pilot exercise with a small number of idols, the NGO wasn’t prepared for such a massive response however they have added more artisans to make more idols to cater to more people.