Coca-Cola and Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui got into a controversy after the beverage giant’s Sprite brand advertisement was called out for hurting the Bengali community.
A Calcutta High Court advocate registered a complaint against the CEO of the India division of Coca-Cola and Siddiqui after a new Sprite advertisement came out a few weeks ago.
Dibyayan Banerji, a Calcutta High Court advocate filed the petition against the ad claiming it had hurt Bengali sentiments.
As per his petition, he said “The main advertisement by Coca-Cola for its product Sprite was in Hindi. And we have no problems with that. We only have a problem with Bengali dubbing of the ad which is running on various TV channels and websites.
Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui is laughing at one of the jokes, which says, ‘shoja anguley ghee na uthley, Bangali khali petey ghumiye porey’. In English, it means that if Bengalis don’t get anything easily, they sleep hungry. And this, we think, hurts the sentiments of the Bengali community.”
Some users on Twitter shared the Bengali dubbed version of the ad.
As GS of @BanglaPokkho, National org of Bengalis in India, I take serious note of Anti-Bengali racist hate ad by @CocaCola_Ind using race stereotype against Bengalis while Hindi-Urdu speaker @Nawazuddin_S laughs. Delete ad & apologize or there will be consequences. @HCCB_Official pic.twitter.com/S7O4K6yg4E
— Garga Chatterjee (@GargaC) April 16, 2023
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He explained that while the Hindi version of the ad was completely fine, the Bengali dubbed version was extremely problematic.
He also wrote “There is nothing offensive in the Hindi advertisement. But it attracts section 66A of the IT Act and also section 153 A of the Indian Penal Code. We also want this type of shallow act and gimmicks to not be promoted in the future.”
According to reports, the joke’s literal meaning is something like “If they can’t take the ghee out with a straight finger, Bengali sleep hungry.”
The complaint was enough though for Sprite India to pull down the ad and issue an apology In Bengali stating that “We deeply regret our recent Bengali ad campaign for Sprite and are withdrawing this unintentional mistake from the Bengali media immediately.
Our company gives due respect to the Bengali language and takes pride in platforms like Coke Studio Bangla, which attaches great importance to the respect and prestige of our Bengal. We are committed to preserving respect and the heritage of the state through our service, new investments, CSR, and social consciousness”.
Image Credits: Google Images
Feature Image designed by Saudamini Seth
Sources: Business Today, Hindustan Times, Livemint
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This post is tagged under: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, sprite ad, Nawazuddin Siddiqui sprite ad, sprite, sprite india, coca cola, coca cola india, Nawazuddin Siddiqui sprite controversy
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