Aishwarya Rai’s latest ad campaign is facing backlash on the grounds of ‘racism’ and ‘child labour’
She has been a former world beauty, global ambassador for social causes and an outspoken artiste. But the latest controversy around her has taken millions of her fans by surprise. In her latest ad campaign, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan seems to have ‘unthinkingly’ endorsed racism and child labour. The print advertisement by Kalyan Jewellers shows Ash like a queen, with a black-skinned child holding an umbrella. An open letter is being circulated on social media written by a group of activists on website Scroll. “While advertisers routinely use fantasy images to sell products, they must surely desist from using images that condone, legitimise, 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. The genealogy of this image can be traced back to 17th and 18th century colonial European portraits of white aristocracy, depicting women being waited upon by their black ‘servants’,” quotes the letter.
Reacting to the letter, Aishwarya has released a statement along with a still from her original shoot for the ad campaign. She says that the use of shoot stills is the prerogative of the ad agency. “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 (we) 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,” says Archana Sadanand, publicist to Aishwarya. However, her casual response is also being criticised online.