Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and Hindu leaders unite to criticise lamb ad
Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish leaders have collaborated on what they describe as “a remarkable interfaith gesture” to urge Meat & Livestock Australia to think again on its new campaign featuring a gathering of the gods sharing a lamb feast.
Senior Greek Orthodox Christian priest Stephen R. Karcher, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, Buddhist priest Matthew T. Fisher and Jewish Rabbi ElizaBeth Webb Beyer, said the ad unnecessarily dragged religious figures together to sell Australian lamb making it disrespectful and inappropriate.
Christian priest Stephen R. Karcher, Rabbi ElizaBeth Webb Beyer, Buddhist priest Matthew T. Fisher, and Hindu statesman Rajan Zed criticised the ad
Issuing the statement from Nevada in the USA, they said: “Love, and not lamb meat, united us and brought us together. Moreover, icons of any faith, larger or smaller, should not be mishandled, taken frivolously and inappropriately used.
“Faith was something sacred and attempts at trivializing it hurt the followers.”
The ad, created by The Monkeys, features a variety gods sharing lamb in a backyard gathering. All of the major religious icons except for the prophet Mohammed are featured in the ad.
The ad triggered an immediate backlash for putting Lamb on Hindu deity Ganesha’s plate, despite believers seeing him as being a vegetarian.
Rajan Zed, President of the Universal Society of Hinduism, said the ad “seemed to make fun of Lord Ganesha”.
“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,” Zed continued.
Karcher, Zed, Fisher and Beyer has asked the Australia Advertising Standards Bureau to “act urgently” on the complaints which the board has already received.
The High Commission of India in Australia has since “made a demarche to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Department of Communication and Arts and Department of Agriculture bringing to their notice an offensive advertisement by Meat and Livestock Australia that hurt the religious sentiments of the Indian community,” according to its release.
Zed also urged Australian authorities to impose a dine on MLA for “hurting sentiments of Hindus and other religious communities”.
The Hindu statesman has also called for the resignation of MLA Board Chair Dr. Michele Allan and MD Richard Norton.
Meanwhile, the Ad Standards Board has sided with Christians in a complaint about signage on a Wicked Campers van. The slogan read: “I believe wet dreams are hand jobs from God”.
The ASB ruled: “The Board considered that the phrase blatantly disrespects sections of the community on account of religious belief and that this did amount to vilification.
Abigail Dawson was Mumbrella's senior content journalist covering event content. She left Mumbrella to move into an agency role in 2020.
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A timely reminder that all religion is outdated nonsense perhaps?
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Why would Monkeys or the client want to do the idea in the first place??? Of course it was going to offend people. Idiotic.
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I’m deeply offended by the exclusion of my religion in this ad. The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster had literally no representation. Was there no room on the banquet menu for Lamb Ragu with Rigatoni? Exclusion = Racism.
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boring
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Lamb is good for iron
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I feel for you friend
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We as an industry can be so stupid at time with comments like this. The ad industry lives in a tiny bubble that the masses out there – who btw is our job to reach – don’t even know of our industry. How about we just respect their views. I am sure what offends you may not offend them.
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https://www.facebook.com/thefeedsbsviceland/videos/vb.242485789418468/505592296441148/?type=2&theater
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http://www.dailytelegraph.com......66b66d8045
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Yes, making light of racism is quite witty, isn’t it. Even though this ad and the discussion around it didn’t mention racism. I salute your blindness
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What these people do not understand is that their beliefs mean nothing. Just because they dress funny and believe in fiction does not give them a right to be offended. BTW they all look like they are living “high on the hog”. No doubt thanks to the fools that fund their worthless lifestyles.
DB
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The Monkey and the MLA were clearly out to court controversy, but were “smart” enough to exclude Mohammad.
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Forced writing, terrible ad even without offending people. Really poorly done and not funny.
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Is this complaint part of the campaign? Trebles all round.
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This is so typical of a hipster creative agency, vying for news headlines. Look at the actual facts, only 22.2% of Australians identify as not having any religion at all. You think you’re so progressive and fail to see that you speak not to the masses. I don’t believe in racism and all the other ‘isms’ indicative of identity politics, but it’s certainly telling that you feared a Charlie Hebdo-esque retaliation, by omitting a visual reference of the Islamic prophet. This in itself speaks in bounds for the lack of tolerance of that religion in being able to jovially cop some form of mockery, as was your mandate to the rest of the religions. Funny that you thought nobody would notice, but then again you probably don’t care and have a couple of copywriters submitting an award entry on this very piece at this very moment.
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If all those religious leaders got upset about this ad, it must be right on the money.
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Impudent little advertising agencies doing their best to cut through advertising clutter with inappropriate ads.
Shame on them – religion and race should be the last topic for this pathetic attempt at humour
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Whoever their cultural consultants were need to be held to account for this – surely someone did their research and explored the belief systems well enough to know they would offend some groups. Or maybe that was the idea?
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@Blissfully Not Ignorant
Nailed it.
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Love this ad. Humourous and 21st century. I bought a leg of lamb to honour it.
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They can always turn the advertisement off or simply change channel or just walk out – really its time to get over yourselves. I get offended by people who believe in a fantasy called ‘god’ and if there was a god it would be a woman.
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‘Inappropriate ads’ sounds like a very one eyed comment. If you really think its inappropriate – dont watch it. Dry your eyes princess and get over yourself.
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