There have been calls for the Australia Advertising Standards Bureau to ban the new “You Never Lamb Alone” released by Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), on the grounds that it makes fun of the Hindu god Lord Ganesha.
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, pointed out that Lord Ganesha was highly revered in Hinduism and he was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be used in selling lamb meat for mercantile greed. Moreover, linking Lord Ganesha with meat was very disrespectful and highly inappropriate, Zed added.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, also urged MLA Board Chair Dr. Michele Allan and Managing Director Richard Norton to issue an official apology besides withdrawing the ad immediately. MLA should be mature enough to understand that “love united us and brought us together and not lamb meat”, Zed indicated.
Rajan Zed stated that inappropriate usage of Hindu deities or concepts or symbols for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt the devotees.
Hinduism was the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about 1.1 billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought and it should not be taken frivolously. Symbols of any faith, larger or smaller, should not be mishandled, Zed noted.
Rajan Zed further said that such trivialization of a Hindu deity was disturbing to the Hindus world over. Hindus were for free artistic expression and speech as much as anybody else if not more. But faith was something sacred and attempts at trivializing it hurt the followers, Zed added.
In Hinduism, Lord Ganesha is worshipped as god of wisdom and remover of obstacles and is invoked before the beginning of any major undertaking.
MLA, with about 50,000 livestock producer members and headquartered in North Sydney, “delivers research, development and marketing services to Australia’s cattle, sheep and goat producers”.
MLA group marketing manager Andrew Howie said in a statement that the ad was not intended to offend but to promote inclusivity in this multicultural country
“The campaign features gods, prophets and deities from across a wide range of religions alongside atheism, in a clearly fantastic nature, with the intent of being as inclusive as possible,” the statement said.
“To achieve this we undertook extensive research and consultation.