'Nestle' slammed for Lord Jagannath's pic on wrapper
Nestle India' was on the receiving end of social media's wrath over a wrapper design of its famous product, 'KitKat'. The controversial wrapper features images of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Mata Subhadra, which hurt the religious sentiments of many.
According to netizens, the images of these highly revered deities will eventually be found on roads, drains and dustbins as people will throw the wrappers after eating the chocolates. Thus, they requested the FMCG brand to remove the pictures used.
"Please remove the Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Mata Subhadra photos in your 'Kitkat' chocolate cover. When people finish the chocolate they will throw the cover on the road, drain and dustbin. So please remove the photos," a user wrote, expressing his concern over the wrapper's design. Slamming the company for making a mockery of religious sentiments, another user tweeted, "All the multi-national companies in India, who have got right to make it 'mazak' of Hindu's religious sentiment. Try it on some other religion and see, it would happen! Like what happened. Ridiculous mindset."
A user wrote: " 'Kitkat', remove this as soon as possible otherwise we will raise a 'Twitter' campaign with a case for hurting religious sentiments."
After receiving backlash over its wrapper design, 'Nestle India' said, " 'Kitkat' travel break packs are meant to celebrate beautiful local destinations and last year we wanted to celebrate the culture of Odisha with designs on packs representing 'Pattachitra', an art form uniquely identifiable by its vivid imagery."
"We wanted to encourage people to know about the art and its artisans. We do understand the sensitivity of the matter and regret if we have inadvertently hurt people's sentiments," the company added.
Further, it informed that they had withdrawn these packs from the market.
"As pre-emptive action, we had undertaken withdrawal of these packs from the market last year. We thank you for your understanding and support," they added.
