A Tanishq ad released few days ago has soon caught in the eye of the storm. It is learnt that the ad film on interfaith love triggered a massive furore in the nation with few firing at the jewellery brand of promoting ‘love jihad’.
For the past couple of days, #BoycottTanishq has been trending immeasurably on twitter. Kangana Ranaut who is active and upfront in voicing out opinion has once again added fuel to the fire with her aggressive tweet on Tanishq ad, saying that “As Hindus we should be absolutely conscious of what these creative terrorists are injecting into our subconscious”.
Advertising bodies come in support upbraiding the attacks
This led the company on Tuesday to withdraw the film citing hurt sentiments and the well-being of its staff. Recently, popular advertising bodies have took a stance to fight the issue in support of the jewellery brand and have issued statements claiming the commercial “is not derogatory to any individual, organisation or religion.”
The advertising club on behalf of Indian Media and Advertising industry upbraided vehemently, the threats and attacks on Tanishq and it’s staff. In the statement, it said “such baseless and irrelevant attack on creative expression is extremely concerning,”
what is this Tanishq ad which has drawn flak on social media?
The ad featured a pregnant Hindu woman escorted by her Muslim mother-in-law to her baby shower ceremony. The lady then questions her mother-in-law that ” “why this ceremony is not held at your home…”, to which the latter replies, “Isn’t it a tradition to keep daughters happy everywhere?”
Very soon the ad released by the makers took the internet by storm, with netizens fuming over for propagating inter-faith marriages. Few users on Facebook and twitter questioned why is it always a Hindu woman who marries into a Muslim family and not the other way round.
Also this is believed to be a weak portrayal of a Hindu daughter who is always guided by a Muslim mother in law by few. However, few users supported that such inter caste marriages unite religions and bring harmony in nation and encouraged Tanishq instead.
While few Hindutva Bigots boycotted Tanishq. They linked this issue with Bollywood citing Javed Akhtar and few such Muslim writers have been using this strategy of belittling Hindu religion ever since 90’s, which went unnoticed.
Amidst this heated controversy, Tanishq released a statement officially on Tuesday night that read, “The idea behind the Ekatvam campaign is to celebrate the coming together of people from different walks of life, local communities and families during these challenging times and celebrate the beauty of oneness. This film has stimulated divergent and severe reactions, contrary to its very objective,” a representative from the company notified.