Detergent brand Surf Excel is back with another festive inspired commercial. The 2-minute long advertisement is based on the concept of good deeds during Ramadan.
The video begins with a young Muslim boy discussing with his father on doing good deeds amid the coronavirus lockdown, to which the latter responds “where there is a will there is a way.”
The reel proceeds to the lad arranging for meals, fruits and other essentials for his neighbours, and watchman. It also extends to other kids doing the same thanking these unsung heroes. The video ends with revealing the boy’s father to be a doctor fighting the coronavirus.
The commercial highlights the message of unity as the undertone for its staple ‘daag achche hain’ USP.
This isn’t the first time that Surf Excel has used the concept of Hindu-Muslim bonding for their advertisements.
In February 2019, the brand released a Holi commercial featuring a young Hindu girl, dressed in a white t-shirt, who chooses to get stained in Holi colours in order to protect her young Muslim friend who has to go to the nearby mosque to pray. The advertisement ends with its classic tagline, daag acche hain (stains are good).
On Twitter, however, the campaign faced the wrath of users who felt that the ad is Hindu phobic’ and controversial and wanted to showcase that Namaaz is more important than Holi.
