Former Miss World and global ambassador for several social causes, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, seems to have ‘unthinkingly’ endorsed racism and child labour. Kalyan Jewellers’ print ad campaign shows Ash like a queen while a black-skinned child holds an umbrella behind her. An open letter is being circulated on social media written by a group of activists on website Scroll. “While 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. The genealogy of this image can be traced back to 17th and 18th century colonial European portraits of white aristocracy, depicting women being waited upon by their black ‘servants’,” quotes the letter.
Facing backlash, Aishwarya’s publicist has released a statement along with a still from her original shoot for the ad campaign. She says that the use of shoot stills is the prerogative of the ad agency. “On the onset, we would like to thank you on drawing our attention to the observation of the perception of the advertisement. The final layout of the ad is entirely the prerogative of the creative team for a brand. However (we) shall forward your article as a viewpoint that can be taken into consideration by the creative team of professional working on the brand visual communication,” says Archana Sadanand, publicist to Aishwarya. However, her casual response is also being criticised online.
