Hindu community is planning to approach Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB), an Australian organization that investigates breaches of advertising standards, to file a complaint against Australian brewer Brookvale Union for using images of Hindu deities Ganesh and Lakshmi on its beer bottle.
Brookvale Union is allegedly continuing to use images of Ganesh and Lakshmi on its beer bottle, despite promising to re-design their bottles and packaging and removing the objectionable images from the website in 2013.
Earlier in November 2013 Brookvale Union said: “We have subsequently apologised for any distress caused and begun the process of removing the images from the website. We’re lovers, not fighters, we want to make it right… We are now focused on redesigning the Ginger Beer which hopefully all can be happy with!
“It seems we have unintentionally offended our Hindu friends with the imagery on our Ginger Beer packaging…Brookvale Union is about great tasting, fun beverages and not about disrespecting anyone or their beliefs.”
Rajan Zed, who is a president of Universal Society of Hinduism in the US state of Nevada, earlier said that using juxtaposed images of Hindu deities on a beer bottle is highly inappropriate.
Zed urged Brookvale Union to immediately remove the Ganesh-Lakshmi images from the beer label, packaging and website; recall all the beer with Ganesh-Lakshmi images from the market; and re-apologize.
Brookvale Union’s Ginger Beer comes in 500 ml bottles in a box (also allegedly carrying same Ganesh-Lakshmi juxtaposed image) of 12.