Surf Excel faced backlash for their Hindu-Muslim harmony themed advertisement. (Screen grab from the ad)
Detergent brand Surf Excel, known for its heart-warming advertisements, recently faced flak over its latest advertisement-cum-campaign ahead of Holi. On February 27, the brand released an advertisement around the Hindu-Muslim harmony but instantly faced criticism for the concept.
Surf Excel’s one-minute Holi special ad Rang Laaye Sang’ (colours bring us together) features two kids a young Hindu girl and a Muslim boy. The girl, dressed in a white t-shirt, chooses to get stained in Holi colours to protect her Muslim friend who has to go to a nearby mosque.
The advertisement ends with Surf Excel’s classic tagline, daag acche hain’ (stains are good).
Agar kuch achha karne mein daag lag jaaye toh daag achhe hain.’ (Stains that come as a part of a good deed are good stains), goes the tagline.
The advertisement was released on February 27 and has already managed to garner around 8,583,942 views and 26k thumbs-up on YouTube.
While Hindustan Unilever, owner of Surf Excel, tried to promote religious harmony with the advertisement, it did not go down well for some who felt it to be humiliating, Hindu phobic, promoting love jihad and controversial. Some even said that the advertisement wants to showcase that namaz is more important than Holi.
Twitter is filled with tweets criticising the ad under the hash tag #boycottSurfexcel.
#boycottSurfexcel because you also know that the add is humiliating Hinduism. And promoting love jehad. Gender selection and talking holi colour as "daag" is not acceptable by Hindu because it is done intentionally. Gender selection could have been reverse also, read a tweet.
One Twitter user wrote: "Dear Sir, please ban the advertisement of Surf Excel which promotes love jihad." The Twitter user added that it is hurting the religious sentiments of the Hindus.
A Twitter user said that the advertisement humiliates Muslims and wrote, "#SurfExcel ad is humiliating Muslim girls to the core.. it is directly saying that a Muslim male child needs help of a Hindu girl for doing his prayer. This is shaming and humiliating all Muslim children."
While many raised objections over the theme, there were also many who are appreciated the Surf Excel Holi advertisement on the Hindu-Muslim harmony and the idea and message behind it.
Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam said, "He who objects this ad by Surf Excel is nothing but against the idea of India. Hats-off who created this beautiful film. #JaiHind."
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti also welcomed the advertisement promoting Hindu-Muslim harmony and slammed the "bhakts" for objecting to its theme.
She said, "I have a better suggestion. Bhakts should be washed properly with Surf Excel. Kyunki Surf ki dhulai daag ko karain saaf."
Another wrote: "Didn’t know about the Surf Excel ad but thanks to the #BoycottSurfExcel hashtag trending, I saw it and loved it so thank you right wing for the lovely recommendation."
Earlier this year, HUL Kumbh Mela advertisement had irked several Twitter users. In the advertisement, a son contemplates abandoning his aged father in the crowd, but soon realises his mistake and comes back to him.
Soon after the ad was shared on the HUL twitter handle, people objected to it by saying it hurt sentiments of Hindus and portrayed the festival in wrong light.
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