A feeling of a conspiracy against their faith and for "hurting religious sentiments" was among the major triggers for complaints against advertisements, as per a study conducted by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI).
Taking note of what upsets Indians most about ads, the ASCI has conducted a study and come out with a report titled 'What India takes offence to' detailing six trends that offend the sensibilities of Indian consumers. For the report, ASCI mapped 1,759 complaints against 488 advertisements received in the last three years.
Last year, the ASCI found itself flooded with scathing complaints against an advertisement of Mohey Manyavar showing Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt portraying ‘Kanyadaan’ as an oppressive practice and suggesting ‘Kanyamaan’ as an alternative.
The complainant said that Mohey Manyavar is falsely projecting Hindu religion as regressive and hurting Hindu religious sentiments by mocking Indian culture and traditions like Kanyaadan.
Specifying instances of ads found offensive for hurting religious sentiments, the ASCI said the ad's attempt at portraying the wedding ritual of 'kanyadaan' as an oppressive practise was deemed to be mocking religion, while the use of the phrase 'upar wala' in an ad by ICICI Bank was seen as promotion of Islam by a complainant who felt there is no 'upar wala' in Sanatan dharma.
The ASCI report comes at a time when concerns are being raised over majoritarianism, and how it is making advertisers, including multi-billion corporations, buckle under pressure if there is a controversy over some campaign. Hurting religious sentiments continues to be a criminal offence in the liberal democracy and calls have been made to repeal it.
Campaigns deemed to be "crossing cultural boundaries" by mocking what is considered sacred and those showing the youth and women in an individualistic way were also among the major triggers that led people to complain, the study found.
A complainant is driven by a feeling that religious identity is constantly under attack, and is under the threat of becoming diffused or diluted, the report said, pointing out that they believe such ads are part of a conspiracy against their religion.
The underlying issue, which triggers complaints of the cultural kind, was specified as fear of new, emerging social structures and the complainant is generally self-righteous and antagonistic in her tonality, as per the report.
"Complainants here consider themselves the gatekeepers of tradition. As long as the change depicted celebrates or makes tradition grander, they are fine by it, but the moment there is a discontinuity in how things are supposed to be, they are angered," the report said.
Sharing of ice cream by a woman with a stranger, and not with the companion she is with, was found to be offensive because they feel this is not how a woman should behave in a traditional relationship, the report said, citing an instance under this category.
In another advertisement showing two women talking about Cars24’s promise that you can test drive the car and return it with full refund in seven days if it doesn’t work for you has upset a section of men. In the ad, the women say there should be such a policy for husbands, too. “Will same return policy be taken so laughingly as this one if we reverse the #gender? (sic)" asks a complainant.