Fabindia, other brands which offended boycott brigade

Jewellery brand Tanishq last year faced backlash for its “Ekatvam” campaign that depicted an interfaith baby shower

Fabindia withdrew an advertisement after facing backlash over “Jashn-e-Riwaaz”, a collection of clothes for the upcoming festive season. Bharatiya Janata Party leader Tejasvi Surya argued the collection was an “attempt of abrahamisation of Hindu festivals” and that the models in the advertisement were “depicted without traditional Hindu clothes”. Several social media users also called for boycotting Fabindia. In the last few years, several other brands including Zomato, Unilever, Manyavar and Tanishq have faced similar backlash:

FabIndia recently faced controversy over a collection of clothes launched for the upcoming festival season, forcing it to withdraw its advertisement. (Photo Courtesy-Fabindia Facebook page)

-- Manyavar’s ad featuring actor Alia Bhatt drew a similar backlash in September this year for hurting religious sentiments. The ad showed Bhatt, who was playing a bride, critiquing the idea of “kanyadaan” and questioning why daughters are considered “paraya dhan”. While the ad appealed to many, it also drew backlash from people who were offended and argued that Manyavar misinterpreted the Hindu tradition.

-- Jewellery brand Tanishq last year faced backlash for its “Ekatvam” campaign that depicted an interfaith baby shower. It removed the advertisement for the campaign. The brand also issued an apology for hurting “public sentiments”.

-- In 2019, Hindustan Unilever Limited faced a similar backlash for its Red Label advertisement which was themed on Ganesh Chaturthi. In the ad, the brand showed a man visiting a Ganesh idol sculptor ahead of the festival only to defer his purchase on realising that the sculptor is Muslim. However, the buyer eventually makes the purchase after having tea with the sculptor.

Hindu Janajagruti Samiti asked the company to remove the ad and tweeted: “We appeal Red Label Chai and HUL News to remove ads insulting religious sentiments of Hindus and apologise to Hindu Community.”

--Surf Excel’s Holi ad “Rang Laaye Sang” based on Hindu-Muslim harmony drew flak for “hurting the sentiments” of Hindus and “portraying the festival in a bad light”.

-- Food delivery app Zomato found itself mired in controversy when netizens questioned its decision to advertise on Republic TV. Actress Swara Bhaskar tweeted, “Hey @zomatoin @zomato@deepigoyal I’m your regular customer.. do u plan to #DefundTheHate & pull your ads from hate espousing channels like @Republic_Bharat ? I’m not okay with my money even indirectly funding this kind of communal bigoted hate! Pls let your consumers know..”

Zomato responded to Bhaskar’s request and said, “Hi Swara, please note, we don’t endorse any content except our own. That being said, we are looking into this.” Zomato’s reply to Bhaskar triggered calls for the app’s boycott.

-- Food delivery app Swiggy faced backlash when it responded to a satirical tweet related to farmer protests. “Had an argument with my Bhakt friend over a farmers protest. He said that we are not dependent on farmers for food. We can always order food from Swiggy. He won,” the tweet from an anonymous handle said.

Swiggy’s official account responded by saying: “sorry, we can’t refund education.” The comment triggered trolling and backlash.