You can call it canny marketing. Four billboards with the catchline, " Maal liya aur bhaag liya", are on display near Gandhi Maidan, Raja Bazaar flyover, Chiraiyatand over bridge and on Saguna Mor-Khagaul Road. The advertisement, put up by Bihar State Milk Cooperative Federation Limited enterprise Sudha Dairy, makes smart use of the raging controversy over billionaire MP Vijay Mallya's loan holiday.

Sudha Dairy managing director S.K. Singh explained: "Ultimately, the Vijay Mallya issue concerns taxpayers, who are also consumers of our products. The motive behind picking up the topic is to create awareness among consumers about financial fraud and also to draw their attention towards our products."

Sudha Dairy has a team of experts, who select the topic of advertisements, especially ahead of big festivals. "The latest advertisement is a huge hit," the managing director said, adding that he too received several calls.

"Most of the callers wanted to know whether Mallya had ever duped Sudha Dairy. But I want to clarify here that we have no business transaction with any of Vijay Mallya's companies. It's an advertisement and nothing else," Singh added. Sudha Dairy had earlier come up with ads such as " Solah Aana Sach" based on Anna Hazare's stir against corruption. Those advertisements had almost a similar impact on the consumers, recalled the managing director.

"It is good so see that Sudha Dairy is coming up with such imaginative advertisements. Earlier, such advertisements used to be the domain of Amul Butter which keeps on changing its billboard topics using current issues," said Vimal Kumar Singh, who works with a pharmaceutical company.

Text by Ramashankar, picture by Jai Prakash