After the Tanishq ad controversy, another ad for the festive season is likely to put Tata on the dock. While the former normalised Love Jihad and had to be removed following outrage on social media, the latter denigrates the ancient Hindu spiritual practice of Yoga and meditation. The ad was uploaded to the YouTube channel of Tata Cliq on the 14th of October. It is pertinent to mention here that the ad was uploaded to YouTube two days after the Tanishq ad was pulled down.
The controversial Yoga ad calls Yoga ‘boring’ and portrays a Christian marriage through online services as fun and ideal. The theme of the ad is that Yoga is an old practice and ought to be discarded for the new and ‘hip’ trend of a Christian e-marriage. The ad follows the now familiar trope of denigrating Hindu traditions and exalting non-Hindu practices as the ideal to follow.
“So many made 2020 truly ‘epic’, not living like a reliQ (relic), it’s the year to learn a new triQ,” the ad says before continuing, “Let’s be minimalistiQ, idealistiQ, simplistiQ, know someone who made 2020 CLiQ? Celebrate them with a perfect gift.” Tata Cliq, like Tanishq, is also a Tata brand.
The Tanishq Love Jihad ad had caused a huge controversy. However, that does not appear to have deterred Tata from coming up with another ad denigrating the Hindu faith. It has also ben observed that denigrating Hinduism and portraying Hindus in a negative light appears to be a dominant theme across the advertising industry. There have been numerous ads and short films over the years that target the Hindu community.
