Principles of Sociology

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Aditya Singh Rajawat (1923605)

3 FIB B
 “YOU NEVER LAMB ALONE”

https://youtu.be/MWkAiIvL7As

Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) ad featuring Ganesha loving lamb meat (2017) is the
advertisement according to me which was proposed to be an ‘Agent of Socialization’ but was
not interpreted in the same way the ad showed Lord Ganesha eating a lamb. The central
theme around which the whole advertisement revolves is that “You Never Lamb Alone”, and
wanted to portray that no matter what is your faith and belief, everyone loves to eat lamb.
Even though the ad showcased a host of other gods including Jesus, Moses, Aphrodite,
Buddha, Zeus and even founder of Scientology Ron Hubbard, it managed to hurt Hindu
sentiments and is banned in India.
According to my opinion the main motto of the advertisement was to normalize the
consumption of lamb and prevail the message of unity among the audiences. As the MLA
group has a history of controversial advertising for this advertisement, they were really
careful and made sure that all religions were presented equally and that no religion was
portrayed in a more positive or negative light. But the main problem was indulgence of Hindu
god figure in the advertisement having lamb. Indian viewers mainly Hindus were the once
who were the most affected by the content as it depicted Lord Ganesha having lamb.
According to Hindu Culture Lord Ganesha is the prominent figure in Hindu god and
goddesses and considered to be a vegetarian and pure soul.
In response of the hatred and complaints against the advertisement the MLA group stated that
“Our version of inclusion was to make sure that everyone was included in some way. We’ve
got both Ganesha and Buddha there, who we know are vegetarian gods, but we are a brand
that tries to be inclusive, so if we create an ad and we choose to include only some of the
religions just seems disingenuous. How can we do an ad about inclusion but leave out a
couple of religions? It’s like saying I’m going to have a party and except for you two.”
The Hindu section of society in India was upset with the advertisement as their sentiments
were hurt watching their God figure having lamb which is totally opposite according to the
Hindus scripts that’s why complaints were filed against the MLA group leading to ban on the
advertisement in India.