Kalyan Jewellers pulls out “racist advertisement” featuring the actress
What it was: The original shot of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as she posed for the ad campaign
Mumbai: An advertisement by a leading jewellery brand featuring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has been slammed by a group of individuals, including the writer and feminist activist Farah Nadqvi, for being “racist” and for depicting child labour. The ad in question features the actress posing in a richly jewelled costume while a child, “very dark and emaciated” holds an umbrella over her.
An open letter addressed to Aishwarya, seven signatories, including the likes of Oxfam India CEO Nisha Agrawal; Enakshi Ganguly and Bharti Ali, co-directors of HAQ: Centre for Child Rights; have pointed out that the photograph mimics the style of “17th and 18th century colonial European portraits of white aristocracy, depicting women being waited upon by their black ‘servants’.”
The signatories have included several of these portraits as an example. The open letter, which was published on Wednesday, also pointed out that the ad seemed to propagate the idea of child labour.
The letter read, “We wish to convey our dismay at the concept of this advertisement, and that you have, perhaps unthinkingly, associated with such a regressive portrayal of a child to sell a product.
“...While advertisers routinely use fantasy images to sell products, they must surely desist from using images that normalise or build desirable fantasy around slavery or servitude of any kind, including child slavery or child servitude. Further, the extremely fair colour of your skin (as projected in the advertisement) contrasted with the black skin of the slave-boy is obviously a deliberate ‘creative’ juxtaposition by the advertising agency, and insidiously racist.”
Meanwhile, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s publicist sent a response to the open letter saying: “Dear Farah Naqvi, Nisha Agrawal, Enakshi Ganguly, Bharti Ali, Madhu Mehra, Shantha Sinha, Harsh Mander and Mridula Bajaj, On the onset we would like to thank you on drawing our attention to the observation of the perception of the advertisement.
“The final layout of the ad is entirely the prerogative of the creative team for a brand. However, shall forward your article as a viewpoint that can be taken into consideration by the creative team of professional working on the brand visual communication.”
( Source : dc correspondent )
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