The Australian Meat and Livestock organization (MLA) has a habit of launching a new ad every year in order to create publicity for their product.
This time, they have managed to put in all known religious figures (except for the prophet Mohammed who is absent because of ‘childcare duties’) at a barbecue table enjoying some meat.
That is not deemed very funny to the worldwide Hindu community that counts about 1 billion people.
Hindu God Lord Ganesh, half man, half elephant, can be seen in a discussion with Buddha whilst enjoying some meat. However, Hindus are vegetarians.
The government of India has therefore lodged an official complaint against the further showing of the advertisement, claiming that is was “offensive and hurting their religious sentiments” towards the Indian community.
The original intention of the ad was to promote unity and inclusiveness by showing all religions working and enjoying some meat together, but instead, it has done the exact opposite. All Hindus around the world have by now heard about it and they are threatening to boycott the meat industry of Australia, a multi-billion dollar business for the government of Prime Minister Turnbull.
Speaking in the US, the President of the Universal Society of Hinduism, Mr. Rajan Zed stated that: “With ads like this playing with the sentiments of communities worldwide resulting in boycotts, how long would Australia keep its position as one of the largest exporters of red meat?”
The Meat and Livestock Organization of Australia is no stranger to receiving complaints about their ads. Last year, the ad that they had brought out appeared to promote violence towards vegans. As a result, the MLA received more than 50 complaints on the first day.
Responding to the latest controversy and India’s complaint, MLA spokesman Andrew Howie said: “Our intent is never to offend, but rather acknowledge that lamb is a meat consumed by a wide variety of cultures and capture how the world could look if people left their differing views at the door and came to the table with open arms, and minds. No matter your beliefs, background or persuasion, the one thing we can all come together and unite over, is lamb.”
To be continued we are sure. Whether the continuation will be done over a barbecue we’re not so sure.
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He has the meat on the plate but nowhere is it seen him eating it.