As a student of marketing and advertising, one of the most important lessons that you’ll ever learn will be to steer clear from religion. Even seasoned brands who’ve tried to play around with religion as a marketing gimmick have failed catastrophically. One such example that will make it to the books for being an epic disaster is this Ganesh Chaturthi ad by the Fort Bend Country Republican Party in the US.
The Republican Party of Fort Bend County in Texas, United States, actually had a rather noble idea on their hands—to wish their Hindu constituents on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. Alas, it all went horribly wrong when they came up with this ad.
The ad was places in the September 12 issue of the Indian Herald to mark Ganesh Chaturthi.
I’m pretty sure you’ve already realised what’s grossly wrong with the ad, but let me enlighten those who didn’t.
The rather endearing dissection of the virtues of Lord Ganesha are rather great. Only, the content is not original, having been lifted from a poster by Zomato. How can you make that assumption? Well, the Republican Party was too lazy to even Photoshop the logo out!
The thing that was most hurtful to Hindu sentiments was this one sentence About their revered elephant God on the poster: “Would you worship a donkey or an elephant? The choice is yours.”
The donkey reference is a jibe at the Democrats, whose party symbol is the donkey, while the elephant is the one for the Republicans. And thus, the elephant v/s donkey comparison.
Now, any sane individual who understands how easily offensive this statement can be would ask the same question. Really????
Social media erupted in outrage over the offensive ad which uses the dirty tactic of bringing religion into politics.
The Hindu-American Foundation (HAF) of Houston was leading the charge on pointing out the offensive nature of the ad. It remarked that while the sentiment behind the ad was much appreciated, the way it was executed was definitely hurtful to the Hindu community.
Asking Hindu-Americans if they would rather vote for a donkey or an elephant by comparing Ganesha, a religious figure, to a political party is highly inappropriate.
The Fort Bend County Republican party must retract this ad. https://t.co/zHyqux9Soc pic.twitter.com/z1Us2oVQ5L
— Sri Preston Kulkarni (@SriPKulkarni) September 18, 2018
Plain low and disgusting to use Hindu deities to further political agendas.
This is so offensive to the Hindu community, and to all ppl, for that matter. Using a religious symbol to coerce ppl to make a political choice is just plain low and disgusting.
— Amy Griffin (@amy_amohg55) September 19, 2018
Take a look at this really offensive political ad from the Republican Party of Fort Bend County, Texas.
We have a large South Asian presence in Fort Bend, and if I were one of them, I'd be quite upset about the ad. https://t.co/jEDilD7fD2
— David Scott (@DEScott_zz) September 18, 2018
Shame on them to come up with this despite having a Hindu on their board.
The Fort Bend County Republican Party (TX) is using the occasion of Ganesh Chathurthi to ask voters (that include a large pop of the Indian sub-continent) to choose b/w a donkey & an elephant in the upcoming elections. SHAME ON THEM. And there's an Indian on the board! Disgusting https://t.co/i3xFa7uhpO
— Shreyasee Das (@shreyaseedas) September 19, 2018
In poor taste.
This is in poor taste and terrible design.
— The Designing Chica (@designingchica) September 18, 2018
Disrespectful!
Unbelievable!!! The disrespect is just unbelievable!
— ANGELA (@angelalsims) September 19, 2018
This perspective makes so much sense!
For crying out loud. What kills me is that someone who helped create this atrocity either did a ton of research and still didn't get it, or is of the Hindu faith and actively contaminated it.
— TheRealUnrealAmerica (@naliiafeno) September 19, 2018
Even non-Hindus can understand why something like this would hurt religious sentiments.
I'm not Hindu but find this very offensive. Thanks for pointing it out.
— Joseph – Wear. A. Mask. (@JKurian77) September 19, 2018
Owing to the backlash of the HAF and the Hindu community, the Fort Bend Republican Party issued an apology.
The apology pacified some, while others continued to be a little affronted.
It would have been better if the Fort Bend county Republican Party just put a phot of Lord Ganesha with a small write up celebrating the festival. Please do not mix party and colors into it. https://t.co/iBW7uYkNNv
— Chowkidar Abul Meghani (@Meghani) September 20, 2018
For future reference, just keep religion out of the tableau, folks! It comes with a default ‘Handle With Care’ label.