Tanishq Removes Its Advt Following Social Controversy

The veteran Jewellery brand, Tanishq, has removed its controversial advertisement featuring a Hindu woman and her Muslim mother-in-law off all online platforms on Monday. It all happened after a backlash on social media, witnessing widespread boycott of Tanishq trending.

The advertisement for Tanishq’s recent collection called Ekatvam – that means ‘oneness’ – showed a Muslim family organizing a traditional Hindu baby shower ceremony for their Hindu daughter-in-law. The caption for the 45-second ad on YouTube reads, “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”.

While the advertisement released on October 9, 2020 was appreciated on social media by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, actor Richa Chadha, and others for its message of “Hindu-Muslim unity”, a large number of users including former BJP MP Kothapalli Geetha and Khemchand Sharma, a member of the BJP’s IT and social media committee, tweeted against it. As the social media campaign accusing Tanishq of promoting “love jihad” by celebrating an interfaith marriage gained momentum, the brand first disabled the comment section and likes/dislikes on YouTube and, late on Monday evening, withdrew the video.

“Love Jihad” is a Hindu fundamentalist conspiracy theory that alleges that Muslim men feign love for Hindu women with the aim of converting them to Islam. In a statement, Tanishq, which is a division of the Tata Group’s Titan Company, said it had withdrawn the ad in view of the “hurt sentiments”, and in order to ensure the “well being” of its employees and partners. The idea behind the Ekatvam 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.

A Tanishq spokesperson said, “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”. While launching the collection last week, Arun Narayan, VP Category, Marketing & Retail, Tanishq, Titan Company Limited, had said: “The past six months have made us realize a few things through the selfless acts of our people across the country and our own experiences dealing with many challenges of these times. ‘Oneness’ is a key essence of humanity”.

On the other hands, Tanishq, which is a division of the Tata Group's Titan Company, said that it had withdrawn the advertisement in view of the “hurt sentiments” and in order to ensure the “well being” of its employees and partners.