Tanishq and advertisements- The threat to creative entrepreneurship?

It’s now pretty clear that religious bigotry has become a drag on the economic future of the country. While communal tension, and the riots that follow, create economic lockdowns, few realize how paralyzing religious/caste intolerance and hate is on the creative faculties of a nation. Nothing is more illustrative of this in recent times than the now-withdrawn Tanishq ad. The 55-second television spot is built on the company’s ‘Ekatvam’ campaign promoting communal harmony. The ad agency ‘What’s Your Problem’ has sensitively built a promotion of Tanishq jewelry around the message of a Muslim family celebrating the ‘Godbharai’ or baby shower of their pregnant Hindu daughter-in-law with the full regalia of Hindu custom.

 

Instead of welcoming the message of communal harmony, bigots churned up a huge online hate campaign claiming the ad promoted ‘Love-Jihad’, and bullied the Tata Group company to withdraw the ad film. In a statement Tanishq said it had no option “keeping in mind the hurt sentiments and well-being of our employees, partners and store staff.”

 

 

Indeed, it is a dark day for a country where the $120 billion Tata Group was forced to bow to the perceived power of a couple of trolls. Looking beyond this absurdity, where is the commercial freedom when creativity has to seek certification from a variety of pressure groups before it hits the market? Feature films have been for years been subject to both ‘official’ and ‘unofficial’ censorship. The tragedy is that now even serious commercial and marketing campaigns have to bow to shadowy gobbelsian control.

 

Much of the anger of these purveyors of ‘religious goodness’ is selective. Where are these custodians of ‘clean culture’ when raunchy advertisements tease men’s libidos and reduce the women to the level of objects. Teh Amul Macho advertisement, the Axe deodrant advertisement we know.. How is it that thousands of hours of such crass marketing is tolerated then? Aren’t these TVCs polluting our Hindu mores and customs?

 

It is to the credit of various industry bodies that they stood behind Tanishq and the freedom of entrepreneurship. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), for instance, said “that nothing in the advertisement was indecent or vulgar or repulsive.” The India Chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA) took a stronger line, calling on the government to safeguard the right to freedom of expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India. The statement called for ‘exemplary action’ by government, and demanded that businesses be provided a “safe environment to communicate their brand and advertising messages.”

 

It is this diversity within and among cultures that makes Hinduism a living faith and not an ossified religion chained to antediluvian dogma and doctrine. There is no one Hinduism, and it’s not defined by one book. There is no one Hindu defined by one set of beliefs. There is neither Church nor Pope; neither Mecca nor Mullah. To coercively enforce an artificial oneness would be tantamount to Semitising one of the greatest religions in the world. Freedom would be cloistered. It would mirror everything that the essence of Hinduism militates against.

 

Those who wish to restrict the idea of being Hindu to their own narrow, bleak, joyless definition, circumscribed by what clothes to wear, what rituals to follow and food to eat, do great disservice to Hinduism. Those who give a pass to these bigots for fear of controversy and reprisal are enablers of bigotry. Hinduism can do without both. Hopefully, it is the prevalent view across India!