Rolling in the graves

Many years ago when a young lady was used in the MM Foam ad, reclining on a foam mattress, IN HER NIGHTDRESS, wearing all her undergarments, there were many eyebrows raised in the family of the prudence of this form of "sexy" advertising.

With Malayala Manorama publishing seamy love stories in its hot selling Manorama Weekly, many of the older family members were wondering where this traditional newspaper house, which did not even have an issue on Sunday and which produced the free "Church Weekly", was heading.

When cousin Rajen (Mammen Mathew) wrote to me a few weeks ago that he would be sending me the first issue of a new magazine from the group callled "The MAN", I was intrigued.


Volume 1 Number 1, The MAN, Cover

The Volume 1 Number 1 January-March 2006 issue arrived. I was stunned.



Publisher: Jacob Mathew
Chief Editor: Mammen Mathew

The contents were racy and far beyond my wildest imagination. The production was top class - but the publication was wandering into dangerous territory for this sedate family image that backs this MM group. Where was the old fashioned conservative MM group heading with this form of seamy magazine?

There was an intriguing ad in the issue from another family company - the flagship company, MRF Ltd.

MRF Ad featuring Finnish Rally Driver Jussi Välimäki

The name of this top rally driver had been spelt completely WRONG.

Valimaki means nothing. It should have been spelt as VÄLIMÄKI.

The part Vali has no meaning. There are three meanings for the word VÄLI: Distance, Space and Stretch. Again, Maki means nothing but MÄKI means Hill.

Jussi Välimäki is a Finnish professional and international rally driver. He is well-experienced and has skills of rallying with rear-wheel, front-wheel as well as four-wheel turbocharged production and WRC-rally cars.

Jussi lives in a city called Tampere in south central Finland. He is the father of two children, Oskari (2001) and Veera (2005). He has his own website.

Väkimäki is aiming for the top in the international rally sport. Maybe MRF could help him on his way by producing some good rally tyres.

Obviously the powers that be in the Manorama organisation know what sells. Hence the launch of this new monthly magazine.

But some of those dear departed members of the family will certainly be spinning at top speed in their graves!