Boycott Surf Excel: Detergent brand faces backlash for ad promoting Hindu-Muslim harmony
In the ad, a young Hindu girl, dressed in a white t-shirt, chooses to get stained in Holi colors in order to protect her young Muslim friend who has to go to the nearby mosque to pray.
Mumbai, March 10, 2019: (ANI) “Holi ke din dil Khil jaate hain, rangon mein rang mil jaate hain gile shikwe bhool ke doston, Dushman bhi gale mil jaate hai (As the colours blend with each other, on the day of Holi everybody is happy. As the colours blend with each other, even enemies keep aside their differences and hug each other)”, so goes the lyrics of one of the most iconic Hindi songs that celebrates the festival by acknowledging its spirit of togetherness.
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Detergent brand Surf Excel, known for its heart-warming advertisements, recently tried to do something similar with its latest Holi special (colours that bring us together) campaign. Under this campaign, the brand released an advertisement created around the Hindu-Muslim unity theme and instantly faced flak for the concept.
Such a beautiful ad. Watched it 10 times, left me smiling EVERY SINGLE TIME. Depicts India through the eyes of innocent/naughty/lovely kids ? Touched. Why attack #SurfExcel ? Why look for conspiracies everywhere? ? https://t.co/6Iz5Ml92QT
— Manak Gupta (@manakgupta) March 10, 2019
हिन्दू धर्म को ही हर बार निशाना बनाया जाता हे कारण इनको भय नही
मित्रो सभी लोग इस तरह कें प्रोडक्ट का पूर्ण बहिष्कार करे ताकि इनकी हिम्मत ना हो सके
क्या सेकुलरिज्म का ठेका हिन्दुओ ने ही ले रखा
सेकुलरिज्म कें नाम पर हो रहे अपने सांसकृतिक पतन हमे बर्दाश्त नही #BoycottSurfExcel pic.twitter.com/TFVSNC7YiV
— चौकीदार जागीरदार साहब (@dsp_punadiya) March 9, 2019
The one-minute-long ad features a young Hindu girl, dressed in a white t-shirt, who chooses to get stained in Holi colors in order to protect her young Muslim friend who has to go to the nearby mosque to pray.
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The advertisement ends with its classic tagline: “Daag acche hain. 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).” With the advertisement, Hindustan Unilever, owner of Surf Excel, tries promoting religious harmony and bringing people together with the power of colors.
Proud to have been a part of the #SurfExcel Holi commercial. An amazing and a brave team behind this!
Unfortunately to convey compassion, tolerance and love one needs to be brave these days.
— Vasan ??L? (@Vasan_Bala) March 10, 2019
Released on February 27, the video has already managed to gather around 7,737,800 views on YouTube.
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On Twitter, however, the campaign has faced the wrath of users who feel that the ad is ‘Hindu-phobic’ and wants to showcase that Namaaz is more important than Holi. Twitter is filled with tweets criticizing the ad under the hashtag boycott Surf Excel.
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This is not the first time Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has faced flack for the plotline of their advertisement. Earlier this year, HUL Kumbh Mela advertisement had irked several Twitter users. In the ad, a son contemplates abandoning his aged father in the crowd, but soon realizes 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 a wrong light.
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Copy Edited by Adam Rizvi
