Just a month after Tanishq came under fire for its advertisement showcasing communal harmony — which the Tata-owned company withdrew, bowing down to trolls — its latest ad has met with the same fate. This time, the social media outrage is due to a statement made by an actor in the ad against the lighting of firecrackers in Diwali.
#BoycottTanishq is seeing a resurgence on social media, with people taking offence at the aforementioned statement and linking it to religious sentiments, rather than the intended message on curbing air pollution. The commercial features actors Neena Gupta, Sayani Gupta, Alaya F and Nimrat Kaur, who discuss their plans for the festival. Sayani Gupta’s statement on firecrackers is what has triggered the social media backlash. She says: “I am hoping to meet my mom after really long. Definitely no fire crackers — I don’t think anyone should light firecrackers (this Diwali).”
The ad can no longer be found on Twitter. When contacted, Tanishq did not confirm whether it has taken it down. The company is yet to make an official statement on the matter.
Meanwhile, some other excerpts of an ad featuring these four actors can still be seen online.
Twitter backlash
Filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri took to Twitter to accuse the ad of “killing tradition and Hindu culture”. “This Diwali, let’s kill tradition, Hindu culture and promote consumerism. Because photoshopped secular models with fake smiles and VFX bodies loaded with regressive,” he tweeted.
BJP National General Secretary Chikkamagaravalli Thimme Gowda Ravi said that companies should focus on selling their products, “not lecture us to refrain from bursting crackers”. He tweeted: “Why should anyone advice Hindus how to celebrate Our Festivals? Companies must focus on selling their products, not lecture us to refrain from bursting Crackers. We will light lamps, distribute sweets and burst green crackers. Please join us. You will understand Ekatvam.”
“On papers we are a MAJORITY. But In reality Do we even EXIST?
We can't even celebrate a major hindu festival in our own country
We don't just need Shri Ram Mandir
@narendramodi ji, we also need freedom to celebrate his home coming on Diwali
#Diwali #Crackers #Crackersban,” tweeted another user.
Online polarisation
“Over the last few years, the polarisation of political ideologies in India has been on the rise. The rise of social media has fuelled this polarisation further, and various media outlets, especially TV news channels, have also taken polarised positions. In such an environment, backlash on ads or any form of content or messaging that takes even a mild political view is a likely scenario today,” Shailesh Kapoor, founder and CEO of media consulting firm Ormax Media, had told BusinessLine in October, while discussing the previous Tanishq controversy.
Brands would have no option other than being cautious and ideologically-neutral as, despite their best intentions, they may find themselves in the middle of a controversy, like Tanishq has, he had added.
The market in India is not yet ripe for ‘wokeness’ and it will take a while for woke to get accepted, Harish Bijoor, a brand strategy expert and founder of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc, had said then. “Woke is niche — and sleep, the opposite of it, is mass in the sense that the people who are awake are far and few and the people who are not willing to explore this terrain of woke are the masses, or in the largest numbers,” he had explained, adding that brands would obviously want to cater to the masses, rather than a niche crowd.