Over the past few days right wing social media accounts have been trending to boycott Surf Excel after they found the brands advertisement promoting Hindu-Muslim harmony.
For those who are wondering what Surf Excel is, it is popular powder-detergent used in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan for washing clothes. The product is manufactured by a company called Hindustan Unilever.
The brand released a one minute advertisement for the festival of colors, Holi. The ad features two kids a young Hindu girl and a Muslim boy. The girl, dressed in a white t-shirt, chooses to get stained in Holi colours to protect her Muslim friend who has to go to a nearby mosque. And the advertisement ends with a it’s classic tagline “daag acche hain,” which means stains are good.
It’s very well clear that the brand was trying to promote religious harmony between Hindu-Muslim. However the advertisement did not go well with some people from the Hindu community. Right wing accounts tweeted that the account promotes love jihad and it showcases that namaz was more important than Holi.
(Love Jihad – Wikipedia says Love Jihad is an “alleged campaigns under which Muslim men target women belonging to non-Muslim communities for conversion to Islam by feigning love.”)
Below are a few tweets from both ends of the spectrum:-
Anti Surf Excel Tweets
#SurfExcel #BoycottHULproducts @HUL_News Remove your recent advt. targetting special community and it's festival. And shame for it.#FranklySpeak pic.twitter.com/32dF54YhtA
— Partha Batabyal (@parthabatabyal) March 10, 2019
#HUL has no right to preach Hindus how to celebrate Holi and certainly donot need to be taught secularism @PaulPolman Your #SurfExcel ad has hurt Hindu sentiments just like the previous Kumbh ad. Hence we #BoycottSurfExcel & #BoycottHULproducts pic.twitter.com/h6jntJcMyA
— Hindu Defense League (@HDL_Global) March 9, 2019
#HUL, You have no right to influence Hindus how to celebrate Holi and certainly donot need to taught us secularism. @PaulPolman ur #SurfExcel ad has hearts our sentiments just like the Kumbh ad.
Hence we support #BoycottHULproductsधर्म के बंधनों को तोडे
आओ सब मिलकर होली खेले! pic.twitter.com/0FgHbHpwrO— khemchand sharma (@SharmaKhemchand) March 10, 2019
Pro Surf Excel Tweets
https://twitter.com/RoshanKrRai/status/1104625849779666944
Best advertisement of the year should give #SurfExcel 😍 pic.twitter.com/qYlP22IzdC
— asli_heera🇮🇳 (@naushu7666) March 10, 2019
This beautiful Ad has angered Sanghis and they want to Boycott #SurfExcel. There are some things Surf Excel cant clean. The Filthy Mind of Indian RW is one of them pic.twitter.com/XLAijY3OSE
— Joy (@Joydas) March 10, 2019
This ad of #SurfExcel can only make communal people angry. Not anyone who likes to live in peace and harmony. pic.twitter.com/ICCJLtdqtZ
— Fahad Shah (@pzfahad) March 10, 2019
The Sanghis have completely lost the capacity to think healthy. They are trending #BoycottSurfExcel. Why? Because their twisted minds are showing them "love Jihad" in the recent Holi ad featuring children. It's a beautiful ad that promotes communal harmony. But fascists hate it.
— Manimugdha Sharma (@quizzicalguy) March 9, 2019