PHILADELPHIA: Urban Outfitters (UO), a publicly traded retail company headquartered in Philadelphia which offers a variety of lifestyle merchandise, has removed Lord Ganesha Duvet Cover from its website after strong protests and huge appeal for its withdrawal from a large segment of Indian American community
Interestingly, Christian and Jewish leaders also came out in support of Hindus who were highly perturbed over cheap use of Indian deities by the American corporation for marketing its products. They urged immediate withdrawal of duvet covers carrying image of Lord Ganesha calling it inappropriate.
Lord Ganesha Duvet Cover, an “Online Only” item, did not show up after search on UO website.
Rajan Zed, President of Universal Society of Hinduism who spearheaded the protest, appreciated the move by the UO management for understanding the feeling and concerns of the Hindu community. It was brought to the attention of the management that the very idea of Lord Ganesha’s image on duvet cover was highly inappropriate and trivializing of highly revered Hindu deity.
“It is highly repulsive and it is in the best interest of the company itself that the move to market the Duvet Ganesha cover is scrapped,” said Sohan Joshi, president of National Federation of Indian Americans. Madhu Patel, president NRI Press Club said he was happy and congratulated the UO for showing “maturity, albeit belatedly.” Denigrating deities of other religions is despicable and should not go unpunished, he added
Nand Kapur, former head of Association of Indian Americans said that members of the Indian community here were actively considering a petition to the Congress thru their local lawmakers for banning any misuse of pictures of deities or highly revered figures of any religion for commercial marketing.
Hindus received huge backing from Christian and Jewish leaders in their bid to scrap marketing of Lord Ganesha covers.
Reverend Richard L. Smith, a United Church of Christ pastor in Nevada, said that a global company like UO should not be in the business of hurting the feelings of devotees of any religion with inappropriate usage of its deity. He urged UO to recall its duvet cover carrying image of Hindu deity Ganesha.
Rabbi Elizabeth Beyer of Northern Nevada and California supported the request made by Rajan Zed asking UO to reconsider its marketing and selling of an item of Hindu faith to be used as bedding. Commercialization of a Hindu god is hurtful to devotees.
Prompt action to remove this item from UO website and avoiding its being sold in the future was pitched for.
Rajan Zed suggested UO and other corporations worldwide to send their senior executives for training in religious and cultural sensitivity so that they had an understanding of the feelings of customers and communities when creating new products or launching advertising campaigns.
Lord Ganesha is highly revered in Hinduism and his image is meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be slept upon. Inappropriate usage of Hindu deities or concepts for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt the devotees.
The objectionable Duvet cover was priced at $129.00-$169.00 on the UO website, which described it as “UO Exclusive” and “topped with a standout illustration by the talented Valentina Ramos”.
UO, Inc. offers merchandise in Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People, Terrain and BHLDN brands through stores in USA, Canada, and Europe; besides garden center, catalogs, websites and wholesale. It boasts of its “established ability to understand our customers and connect with them on an emotional level” and calls its brands “both compelling and distinct”. Richard A.
Hayne and Tedford Marlow are President of UO, Inc., and Chief Executive Officer of UO Group respectively.
India Post News Service
