Tanishq, a well-known jewellery brand by TATA, launched an advertisement on 9th of October and that had been surrounded with numerous controversies.
Starting from the top, the advertisement portrays a message to think on, In the advertisement, it showed a Hindu girl had her baby shower and she was married in a Muslim family. Her in-laws gave their best to make the girl happy doing all the Hindu rituals. This idea was to promote the spirits of acceptance, inclusivity, equality and harmony, celebrating the elegance, royalty and beauty that jewels could impart.
Later the advertisement had an outburst in social media when people started raising their voices on the favour or against it. A society divided their opinions into two phases of the discussion.
According to the people in favour, the after advertisement portrayed the best outcome of showing the inter-caste and inter-religion marriages and practises that is the beauty of the country. Also, the advertisement was to convince the viewers that no one is allowed to harm people’s feelings and said, Let us make the society to live their happiness, to rejoice their part, whether it is an inter-religion marriage. The prominent leaders also supported the Congress Leader Shashi Tharoor and Abhishek Singhvi.
Many who opposed the proposed was raising their voice against sexism and “love jihad”. They felt that why did the Hindu girl need the mercy of her mother-in-law? Why is it so? Why is the Hindu girl not allowed to practise her rituals on her own? According to the opposition, this is a pure example to promote “jihad”. Bollywood Queen Kangana Ranaut also opposed the advertisement.
Tanishq officials said to give the revert for the trolling, “The idea behind the Ekavatam 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.”
Amid the controversy, shares of Titan Company Limited, which owns the Tanishq brand, fell 2.18% or ₹27.35 per share on the BSE, to close at ₹1,229.75 per share.
Similarly, author Shobhaa De said, “Good for you @TanishqJewelry. If only we had more ads like this sensitive and brilliant one promoting love between different communities, India would be a far better place for all. Shame on trolls #down with bigotry.”
Agreeing to Ms De’s tweet the RPG Group’s Harsh Goenka had tweeted, “What a lovely ad is being trolled. What’s happening to us?”
Author Chetan Bhagat also tweeted, “As a TATA group company, expected #Tanishq to be fairer and braver. If you have done nothing wrong, if you have shown something beautiful about our country, don’t get bullied. Be Indian. Be strong.”
Finally, on Tuesday night, the Jewellery company decided to withdraw the advertisement after getting trolled.
Sometimes, the depiction is powerful but the perception of interpreting the goods and uniqueness of the pure hard work. Makes the content fall in traps of controversy.
