MLA ad depicting Ganesha banned by Advertising Standards Board

The Advertising Standards Board has reviewed and reversed its decision on MLA’s lamb ad after complaints from Hindus.

Australia’s advertising watchdog has backflipped on an earlier decision, now banning an “offensive” depiction of a Hindu deity seated at a table where various religious figures are eating lamb.

The Advertising Standards Board, which initially cleared the Meat and Livestock Australia advert, has reversed its position after an independent review conducted amid backlash from the international Hindu community.

The review rejected the board’s initial majority finding that the YouTube advert, which showed Lord Ganesha at a meal celebrating lamb as “the meat we can all eat”, was “light-hearted and humorous” and did not breach the advertising standards code.

The highly contentious issue has again split the board, with a majority this time upholding the complaint in light of the review finding that it had not given enough weight to complaints.

It found that a reference in the advert to Lord Ganesha “the elephant in the room” was offensive to people of the Hindu faith, as the deity — who appears in elephant form — was the only one singled out for his physical characteristics.

This reference “ridiculed a revered feature of a prominent deity of the Hindu faith for no apparent purpose”, the board said, overturning its earlier decision that the joke was “not discriminatory or vilifying”.

“The board recognised that the advertiser is known for presenting laid-back advertisements with edgy Australian humour,” the board said in its latest decision.

“However, the board considered that the advertiser had given inadequate consideration to how seriously some Australians take their religious views — and did not pay due attention to the level of offence about something important to those people.”

Among the original complaints about the advert were comments that “the phrase ‘elephant in the room’ might sound cute and clever, but Lord Ganesha is not just an elephant to Hindus. He is the first deity in all Hindu services, and is considered the remover of obstacles”.

“It is rather insulting for non-Hindus to refer to him as just an elephant in the room.”

MLA said it disagreed with the finding but was no longer broadcasting the advert, copies of which can still be found online at various YouTube channels.