Appeal against the denigration of Hindu Deity Shri Ganesh and Hanuman by DDB Mudra group

The DDB Mudra Group, a part of the DDB Worldwide Communications Group, is India’s integrated marketing communications and services network. In their advertisements they have used Hindu Deities like Shree Ganesh and Shree Hanuman to market products like health product – Nutralite, computer related product – mouse trippin and Cycle agarbatti resulting in the denigration of Hindu Deities and Hinduism. 

Alert Hindus notified Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS), a noted Hindu organization in India, about this denigration of Hindu Deities and Hinduism. Accordingly, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti wrote to the Group CEO and managing director,  A.G. Krishnamurthy and  ​Madhukar Kamath asking them to remove the denigrating advertisements from all electronic media as well as from their YouTube page but there has been no response from them. (The letter explaining the denigration is published below on this page.)

See the advertisement at these links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRYfhn0kNe0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iji7BmiwN4U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqPX37vayeU
http://www.coloribus.com/adsarchive/prints/cycle-agarbatti-lord-hanuman-10918755/

Email sent by Hindu Janajagruti Samiti to the DDB Mudra group

From: HJS
Date: Tue, Nov 17, 2015 at 2:42 PM
Subject: Request to withdraw the “Lord Hanuman” Print advertisements
To: [email protected], [email protected]

|| Shri ||

                                                                        Date: 17.11.2015

To,
DDB Mudra West, DDB Mudra Max,
DDB Remedy, Track DDB, Tracylocke
“Mudra House”,
Opp. Grand Hyatt,
Santacruz (E),
Mumbai 400055
Tel: 022-33080808
Fax: 022-33080300

Dear Sir,

Subject : Request to withdraw the ‘Nutralite-Health cha Shree Ganesh’, mouse trippin and Cycle Agarbatti: “Lord Hanuman” Print advertisements

Hindu Janajagruti Samiti is a registered NGO engaged in social, religious and National welfare work. The Samiti is active throughout the world, educating people about Dharma in a scientific way, campaigning against malpractices that masquerade as religious practices while also solving issues of national, social and religious importance. For further details please refer to our website www.HinduJagruti.org

We at Hindu Janajagruti Samiti have received several complaints from devout Hindus regarding the insulting picturization of Hindu Deity Shree Ganesh and Hanuman in the advertisement of a health product, and an electronic product on YouTube at the following links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRYfhn0kNe0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iji7BmiwN4U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqPX37vayeU

In the advertisement of agarbatti you have humanized Deity Hanuman, please refer below link: http://www.coloribus.com/adsarchive/prints/cycle-agarbatti-lord-hanuman-10918755/
where you have used a revered Hindu Deity Shree Hanuman to spread your clients’ message. In one advertisement, Deity Ganesh is used to market a health product to reduce belly fat during the holy Ganesh festival. In another advertisement you have used a mouse to correlate with Deity Ganesh’s vehicle-mouse to advertise a computer related product. To market agarbatti you have shown deity Hanuman on the bicycle. In order to market your client’s products you have humanized Hindu Deities. This is a very offensive way to market and sell products.

We are sending this appeal letter to notify you regarding the humiliating representation of a Hindu Deity as presented in the above mentioned advertisements. In Hinduism, Deities are highly revered and devotees worship them with immense faith.

However, your advertisement has denigrated the perception of Deity. This leads to insulting and tarnishing the noble image of Hindu Deities and Hinduism. It also hurts the religious sentiments of Hindus.

You may have made this advertisement unknowingly; however, hurting religious feelings leads to an offence as per the Indian Penal Code – section 295A.

We at Hindu Janajagruti Samiti have campaigned to educate people about such denigration that occurs through various products, and after learning about the denigration, many companies have removed the Deities’ pictures from their products. Please refer to our website https://www.hindujagruti.org/hjs-activities/stop-adharma-practices to see our ongoing and successful awareness campaigns against the denigration of Hindu Dharma.
We urge you to consider the above points and remove these advertisements immediately from all electronic media including YouTube to prevent further denigration of the highly revered image of Hindu Deities. We also request you not to use Hinduism or Hindu Deities in your advertisements in future to promote any products as it leads to their denigration.

We stress that our aim in bringing up these points is to educate and ensure that Hindu Deities and Hinduism get accurately represented in society. Hinduism has been misrepresented at many levels. You can take one step towards ensuring that the Hinduism does not get disgraced by discontinuing these advertisements.

Sincerely,
Shri. Sagar Chopdar
Hindu Janajagruti Samiti