Last month, jewellery brand Tanishq had to withdraw an ad showing an interfaith family following a sharp backlash on social media with many accusing the company of ‘love jihad’ and ‘fake secularism’.
The ad that promoted the company’s jewellery collection Ekatvam (oneness) started a heated debate on social media. The 43-seconds commercial showed a pregnant woman being led to her bridal shower, a Hindu custom called ‘godh bharai’, by a woman whose viewers later realise is her mother-in-law.
The young woman, seen in a sari and bindi, addresses the older one, as ‘Ma’ and asks, ‘But you don’t celebrate this custom? The mother responds with a gentle, “The tradition of keeping daughters happy is there in every home.”
“She is married into a family that loves her like their own child. Only for her, they go out of their way to celebrate an occasion that they usually don’t. A beautiful confluence of two different religions, traditions, cultures,” read the YouTube description of the video.
The commercial was garnered many negative remarks and was the subject of heavy trolling by a large section of social media users. As a result, #BoycottTanishq trended on Twitter for several days.
Now, another ad by the company featuring actors Neena Gupta, Alaya Furniturewala, Nimrat Kaur, and Sayani Gupta has drawn a lot of flak and resulted in #BoycottTanishq trending for the second time in less than a month.
“I am hoping to be able to meet my mum after really long. Definitely no firecrackers, I don’t think anyone should light any firecrackers. But a lot of diyas, a lot of laughter hopefully and a lot of positivity,” she says in the commercial.
The message of not bursting firecrackers didn’t go down well with a section of social media users.
While there has been a lot of talk about firecracker ban due to the current levels of pollution, many users argued that Tanishq was giving ‘advice’ or ‘lecture’ on how to celebrate Diwali. Some users said that festivals such as Diwali should not be used for awareness campaigns.
However, many users supported the ad saying that crackers must not be allowed at any cost due to the alarming levels of pollution in many cities.
The company has now withdrawn the commercial from all its social media handles.
Source: Times Now
