India Post News Service
CHICAGO: Papa John’s, pizza delivery company headquartered in Louisville (Kentucky), is “in the process of removing” its PapadiasTV Commercial ‘Yoga’ after a protest from Indian-Americans saying it trivializes Hinduism. On March 26, PizzaMarketplace.com published an email content believed to be from a Papa John’s spokeswoman, saying: “We are in the process of removing this commercial from rotation, which will take full effect over the next week”.
Rajan Zed, President of Universal Society of Hinduism, had raised and spearheaded the protest, and he appreciated that Papa John management understood the concerns of the Hindu community, which thought that it was highly inappropriate to trivialize the greatly revered Hindu concepts/symbols Om and Yoga in a pizza commercial.
He maintained that this commercial associated sacred Hindu concepts/symbols with beef-laced pizza, which was hurtful to the devotees who considered cow as holy (three of the four varieties of its recently launched Papadias reportedly contain beef.
Hinduism is perhaps 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 had stated.
In Hinduism, “Om”, the mystical sacred syllable containing the universe, is used to introduce and conclude religious work. Usually considered the most powerful mantra, Om has been equated with brahman, Isvara, atman, etc.
Founded in 1983, awards-winning Papa John’s International Inc. which claims itself as “world’s third-largest pizza delivery company” with over 5,000 restaurants, describes recently introduced Papadias as “Part pizza, part sandwich” and “Portable Deliciousness”.
