Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is the brand ambassador of Kalyan Jewellers, something most of the people who stare at billboards during traffic jams would know. The brand’s new ad campaign has been under fire for putting up a seemingly racist visual of the actress which reflects 17th century European paintings of noblewomen with their child servants.
An open letter to the actress written by a large team of activists, lawyers and feminists in response to a full page advertisement of the said brand has been carried by the website Scroll.in. Here are a few excerpts of the letter written to her:
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.
Today, many national and international movements are struggling to change at least the public culture that normalises child labour, a struggle that the Nobel committee has also recognised. We, therefore, hope you agree that this sort of advertisement – a romanticisation of child servitude to feed into elite fantasies – is extremely objectionable and avoidable.
As an influential member of the Indian film industry and a popular star with a large fan following, we trust that you wish to use your image in a manner that promotes progressive thought and action, and would not knowingly promote regressive images that are racist and go against child rights.
We, therefore, urge you to do the right thing – cease to associate yourself with this offensive image by ensuring that further use of this advertisement is stopped.
You can read the entire letter at Scroll.in. What do you think about this advertisement? Should the brand issue an apology?