Tanshiq takes down the ad as #BoycottTanishq trends

As the #BoycottTanishq trend the jewelry brand takes down the ad, Twitter asks why so?

Titan Group’s Jewellery brand Tanishq has taken down its television advertisement after people demanded a boycott of the brand for depicting an interfaith marriage. For their new campaign for Ekatvam By Tanishq, the jewelry brand released an advertisement that showed a Muslim family preparing a traditional Hindu baby shower for their pregnant Hindu daughter-in-law. The caption of the video on YouTube read: “She is married into a family that loves her like their own child. Only for her, they go out of their way to celebrate an occasion that they usually don’t. A beautiful confluence of two different religions, traditions, cultures.”

But the ad did not go well among the netizens, it got mixed reactions. One section of people thought it was a beautiful example of Indian’s religious harmony, others criticized it and said: promoted love jihad” and made #BoycottTanishq trend online, claiming it doesn’t show the reality of interfaith marriages.

 

However, as an outrage against the ad grew, Tanishq officially removed the video from all their platforms. We are deeply saddened with the inadvertent stirring of emotions and withdraw this film keeping in mind the hurt sentiments and well being of our employees, partners, and store staff,” Tanishq said in a statement.

The company said that the idea behind the campaign was to “celebrate the coming together of people from different walks of life, local communities and families during these challenging times”.

Many reacted to the ad being pulled down calling the outrage absurd as it was not promoting hate but unity. “If Hindu-Muslim “ekatvam” irks them so much, why don’t they boycott the longest surviving symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity in the world — India?” Congress MP Shashi Tharoor wrote on Twitter. Screenwriter Aniruddha Guha, commented: “LOL, we live in a time when an ad is withdrawn for literally *promoting* communal harmony. And we think COVID-19 is India’s deadliest virus right now.” Here’s how netizens reacted after the ad was pulled down.

What are your thoughts on this?