It is said that no publicity is bad publicity. The advertisement Industry in India probably seems to abide by this ideology. However, things are changing now and peddling baseless propaganda in the name of creativity is surely going to backfire. From Nykaa to Manyavar, several brands that started campaigns to stir controversy have faced stiff opposition from consumers. Joining the list of controversial brands, recently Fabindia, a clothing brand started its Diwali campaign that can be described as an attempt to Islamize a traditional Hindu festival. However, the clothing brand immediately faced extreme backlash from netizens.
Fabindia’s ‘secular’ Diwali campaign
Reportedly, Fabindia released a video promoting their new collection and also tweeted for the same. The tweet read, “As we welcome the festival of love and light, Jashn-e-Riwaaz by Fabindia is a collection that beautifully pays homage to Indian culture.” Fabindia’s Diwali campaign was titled, ‘Jash-e-Riwaaz’, a euphemism for Diwali or if we put bluntly, a weak attempt to Islamize a traditional Hindu festival.
However, the dimwits of the advertising agency could not Islamize the festival in a video graphical ad and thus showed the rich Rajasthani culture to sell their product.
Tweet deleted after being heavily trolled
The netizens weren’t impressed with Fabindia and gave the company a piece of their mind, in a rather generous and curt manner.
Shefali Vaidya, slamming the brand, wrote, “Wow @FabindiaNews great job at de-Hinduising Deepawali! Call it a ‘festival of love and light’, title the collection ‘Jashn-e-Riwaaz’, take Bindis off foreheads of models but expect Hindus to buy your overpriced, mass produced products in the name of ‘homage to Indian culture’!”
Am an indian and I have never celebrated jashn-e-riwaz. Never heard of it. What on earth is this festival? https://t.co/w15iBV0qpJ
— Janani Sampath Veeravalli✍️ 🇮🇳 (@jananisampath) October 18, 2021
Meanwhile, another citizen mockingly asked, what festival Fab India was talking about as he had never heard of ‘Jash-e-Riwaaz’, “Am an Indian and I have never celebrated jashn-e-riwaz. Never heard of it. What on earth is this festival?”
Am an indian and I have never celebrated jashn-e-riwaz. Never heard of it. What on earth is this festival? https://t.co/w15iBV0qpJ
— Janani Sampath Veeravalli✍️ 🇮🇳 (@jananisampath) October 18, 2021
BJP Yuva Morcha President Tejasvi Surya also slammed the ad on Twitter. He wrote, “Deepavali is not Jash-e-Riwaaz. This deliberate attempt of abrahamisation of Hindu festivals, depicting models without traditional Hindu attires, must be called out. And brands like @FabindiaNews must face economic costs for such deliberate misadventures.”
Deepavali is not Jash-e-Riwaaz.
This deliberate attempt of abrahamisation of Hindu festivals, depicting models without traditional Hindu attires, must be called out.
And brands like @FabindiaNews must face economic costs for such deliberate misadventures. https://t.co/uCmEBpGqsc
— Tejasvi Surya (@Tejasvi_Surya) October 18, 2021
After being slammed for unnecessarily uplifting secularism and Muslim ideologies in a Hindu festival, Fabindia removed the tweet.
Indian ad industry’s never ending obsession with Hindus
A few weeks back, cosmetics e-commerce giant Nykaa, during the auspicious Navratri decided to offer as much as 40 per cent discount on condoms and lubes – because how else can a company like it celebrate a Hindu festival, if not by making monetary gains out of the perception that Navratri is, in fact, a pop festival and not a religious one to which Hindus attach great importance?
Read more: The morbid obsession of liberal ad-makers with correlating Condoms and Navratri is despicable
In another instance, Social Justice Warrior and a hobby actor, Aamir Khan was seen sermonising Hindus for the umpteenth time on how to celebrate a Hindu festival in a CEAT tyres advertisement. In the ad, Aamir Khan is shown as the supporter of the Indian Cricket team who remarks, “Anar, sutli bomb, chakarghini – today if our team hits sixes, we will also burst crackers. But where? Inside the society. Roads are not for bursting crackers. It’s for traffic.”
Witnessing such horrifying attempts by Fabindia, Nykaa and many others, it can be said that the advertisement industry only believes in using Hindu traditions and rituals as mere marketing gimmicks. However, Hindus, after being mocked and victimised for so many years, are now finally standing up to the anti-Hindu propaganda.
Infact it has worked very well for Fab India. The companies and advertisers use negative publicity viz a viz Hindus to gain publicity. This ad has suddenly out fabindia in limelight. Now everyone knows about their brand as against 10% just few days earlier.
As long as people just know FabIndia as a brand that sells cheap stuff at inflated prices and one that mocks hindus and we keep away from it, the ad will have served its purpose.
One is a religion of supreme tolerance, another a religion that kills people for drawing a cartoon, grow up guys, shun violence and books that teach violence