When Tata Group company Titan pulled back a 45-second commercial focusing on an interfaith married couple for their brand Tanishq’s Ekatvam jewelry collection (pictured) on October 12, 2020, the company stated they were "deeply saddened” by the "inadvertent stirring of emotions.” The advertisement portrayed a pregnant Hindu daughter-in-law being invited by a Muslim mother-in-law to celebrate the impending birth in a traditionally Hindu manner. The company explained that "the idea behind the campaign was to celebrate the coming together of people from different walks of life… during these challenging times and celebrate the beauty of oneness.” Ekatvam means oneness in quality in Sanskrit.
Critics alleged the advertisement was supportive of "Love Jihad,” a word used for Muslim men who allegedly lure Hindu women into matrimony and ultimate conversion to Islam. The withdrawal was done "keeping in mind… the well-being of our employees, partners and store staff.” Some threats had been made to Titan shop employees. The hashtag #BoycottTanishq was very popular on social media platform Twitter. While those who harangued the company on social media celebrated their "victory” over the withdrawal of the commercial, many exhorted Titan and the Tata Group not to succumb to the bullying.
Parsiana requested the views of advertising professionals Roda Mehta and Vistasp Hodiwala on the advertisement. To veteran Mehta, the social media uproar over the advertisement "is the usual concomitant of a minority pushing its agenda while the majority remains silent spectators… Inadvertently the protagonists have ended up giving the Titan commercial free print and airtime exposure.” Mehta noted that "there are numerous real life cases of secure interfaith marriages in our daily lives, many of which are very successful. And (the advertisement) was released by a Parsi group company at that!” She noted that "the sense of those who interacted with Tata companies in the past is that a Xerxes Desai or Russi Mody or Darbari Seth would not have pulled off the commercial… These are different times, and the company must have taken a well-considered decision.”
The advertisement is "in sync with Titan’s attempt…to nudge open market segments not previously considered,” she noted. The veteran’s career spans five decades and various roles in marquee advertising companies. She has also served as founder member and chairperson — technical committee of the Media Research Users Council. Mehta reminisced that years ago Titan, and advertising agency Ogilvy and Mather where she was a director specializing in media planning and buying, had crafted advertisements for Titan watches to open up new markets. Where customers had traditionally seen a watch as a lifetime purchase, the shift was to seeing a watch as an accessory, with multiple dress watches in one’s collection. "Next time she asks for sari, give her a Titan watch instead” and two other such advertisements were created.
"A farce” is what Hodiwala called the backlash. To the cofounder and chief creative officer of advertising agency Underdog and partner at digital start-up Centrick, the advertisement was "tastefully envisioned, aesthetically executed and lovingly put together.” The commercial shows the mother-in-law placing a Tanishq gold necklace around her daughter-in-law’s neck. However, the reaction to it speaks "volumes about this so-called new, thin-skinned India which has lost its way in the morass of extreme right-wing ideology… one that cannot appreciate the beauty of any situation without vitiating it by bringing religion, race and the resultant bigotry into it,” he observed.
Ruing that a "sweet love story between two young individuals of progressive mindsets” became "a backdrop that caters to bigotry and fanaticism,” Hodiwala stated that "If the rest of us yet do not show the stomach for a fight back, we better get used to the idea that the sane, tolerant nation we were born into is about to become a sad myth.”