Advertisements are very helpful in attracting customers and this is the reason as to why companies spend a lot on making good ads and in fact, they don’t mind paying huge amount to celebrities for getting featured in the ads of their products.
However, ads should be made keeping in mind that they don’t hurt religious sentiments of any community. Normally, it has been observed that hurting religious sentiments of Hindus is something which many organisations like to get indulged in because of the simple fact that they don’t retaliate much and forgive the other person or party for their ignorant behaviour. But now it seems that there is a change in the community and they don’t mind giving a mouthful to those who hurt their sentiments, at least on social media.
Jawed Habib, the famous hair stylist and owner of chains of hair salons, got into big trouble after an ad was released in Kolkata. This ad showed Hindu Gods relaxing in Jawed Habib hair salon, doing make-up and counting money. The tag-line of the ad was, “Gods too visit JH salon”.
The advertisement got heavily slammed on social media and Twitterati thrashed it right and left, asking Jawed Habib as to why only Hindu Gods and Goddess are featured in the ad and why he has not shown Prophet Mohammad also enjoying the services of his salon.
Here are some selected tweets:
Uncivilized:
@JawedHabib Ridiculous ad#selling the product by showcasing such a low mentality shows hw civilized you are..
— Swapnil Bhise (@swapnilbhise81) September 6, 2017
Can anyone answer?
@PatelShrimaan हिंदूओं के देवी देवताओं का अपमान करने के बाद भी मुसलमान अपने को भारत में असुरक्षित महसूस करता है?
— Shrichandkishnani (@Shrichandkishn1) September 6, 2017
Tricks for publicity:
Just for the sake of publicity… apne dharm ke bare mai kar ke dikha
— HARDIK RAMI (HR)🇮🇳 (@Hardikrami1989) September 5, 2017
IMHO my Gods are above insult/ridicule yet I resent if you single them out from those of other faiths to pimp your goods / services pic.twitter.com/u28mVQzJRc
— Rohit Agarwal 🇮🇳 (@ragarwal) September 5, 2017
Freedom of speech:
https://twitter.com/AbhijeetMishirG/status/905036771888480256
Rubbish:
https://twitter.com/AsYouNotWish/status/905017213974855680
Where is prophet?
@JH_JawedHabib u belong to " #religionofpeace " but need to portray Hindu Gods in a salon?? U don't think ur Prophet wud like ur salon??🤔😏 pic.twitter.com/pJkT5IywqD
— 🇮🇳 Rajalakshmi Joshi 🇮🇳 (@rajalakshmij) September 5, 2017
Mr. Javed habib shame on u,tell me where is mohmmed and almighty allah…give your services to them too. pic.twitter.com/RvXLBOWIda
— Mariner Yogesh (@MarinerYogesh) September 5, 2017
Appropriate action must be taken:
https://twitter.com/Prachi_Patel_/status/905103765069430784
Boycott his salon:
Can't do much else, not like I can issue a fatwa, but atleast I can vow to never visit your salons again @JH_JawedHabib. Despicable pic.twitter.com/SLNgZqRNqx
— Nupur J Sharma (@UnSubtleDesi) September 5, 2017
Jawed Habib reacted quickly to the outrage and apologised for the ad. As per him, he and his company never intended to hurt the religious sentiments of any community and the ad had been published by Kolkata franchise without getting it approved by the Chairman and the company.
He apologised in a series of tweets,
“We understand our ad didn’t go well wid readers, we hereby clarify tht we duly respect, value and do not wish to hurt anyone’s sentiments. We regret this incidence & express our heartfelt apology. We fully respect all faiths & beliefs…we do not want to hurt anyone’s feelings. We never want to hurt anyone’s sentiments…we apologise sincerely!”
We understand our ad didn't go well wid readers, we hereby clarify tht we duly respect, value and do not wish to hurt anyone's sentiments.
— Jawed Habib (@JH_JawedHabib) September 5, 2017
We regret this incidence & express our heartfelt apology. We fully respect all faiths & beliefs…we do not want to hurt anyone's feelings.
— Jawed Habib (@JH_JawedHabib) September 5, 2017
We never want to hurt anyone's sentiments…we apologise sincerely!
— Jawed Habib (@JH_JawedHabib) September 5, 2017
— Jawed Habib (@JH_JawedHabib) September 5, 2017
— Jawed Habib (@JH_JawedHabib) September 5, 2017
He also made it clear that he has only one religion and that is the religion of scissors. After series of tweets, he also posted a video:
https://twitter.com/JH_JawedHabib/status/905021957787140096
Click here to watch this video directly on Twitter
However, there were some netizens who didn’t find anything wrong in the ad and called this outrage as unnecessary.
https://twitter.com/saileenas/status/905334952681553920
What is wrong in this ??
Not finding anything insulting in this advertisement by @JH_JawedHabib pic.twitter.com/3mLiZFsd0W— Alka (मोदी का परिवार ) (@ALKAAGARWAL9) September 5, 2017
We feel that such ads which feature Gods should be avoided as they can be interpreted in many ways and may result in infuriating people. What do you have to say in this connection?
