Onam is a very important and auspicious festival that is grandly celebrated in God’s own country which is Kerala. As Onam gets closer, the excitement of people increases to another level as celebrating this festival is really great fun. So there are few rituals that have to be performed in the festival and some of the well-known rituals include donning the traditional kasavu, and also having a great feast that involves selected dishes which is also known as Sadhya. So as Onam is going on now, many brands are featuring Onam and making ads based on it. One such ad grabbed all the attention of netizens which mistakenly showed the wrong procedure of the festival.
“Cottons Jaipur” a clothing brand has recently launched its Onam collection and depended on it, they posted some promotional pictures which went slightly wrong and eventually grabbed all the attention of netizens. So in one of the clothing brand’s promotional pictures, it seems that there are two models who were beautifully dressed up in white and gold salwar suits just like the main color combination of the dress which is usually worn during Onam celebrations, having a Sadhya meal, that included the South Indian dishes such as dosa and idli. Well for the ones who don’t know, idli and dosa are not included in the traditional Sadhya meal. Onam Sadhya meal is a multi-course vegetarian meal, which is usually served on banana leaves and people sit cross-legged on the floor. Now, this was also pointed out by many netizens and it’s got viral quickly on social media platforms.
Netizens started reacting to it and sharing their thoughts on Twitter. Now, these promotional pictures have definitely led to a great discussion on Twitter as people think that the brands should not use cultures to promote their brands. Have a look at some tweets:
- “Has no one from their team ever attended a sadhya before? If they had they would never have done this. Moral of the story: don’t use cultures you don’t know the basics of.”
- “Since when did dosa and idli be a part of Onam sadhya?”
- “I am guessing this is how it went, they hired a random mediocre creative agency who were like Onam is a South Indian festival. go to a South Indian restaurant and order the first three things on the menu. Because South India is a monolith.”
- “Onam is South Indian festival idli and dosa – South Indian. Same same”
- “The funny part is, any agency creative director/ photographer worth their salt would have Googled what Onam Sandhya consists of. pretty much every tier 1/ tier 2 City will have at least one Malayali eatery which will provide the Sambar, parippu, Kootu Curry, thora/ upperi, etc.
- “Honestly it is a waste of sadhya opportunity if they have dosa and idli in it. Where is the kalan, olan, avial, pachadi, erisseri? To each their own I guess”
From this, it is clear that people were really disappointed after seeing the promotional picture as people felt that the clothing brand was using cultures to promote their brands but it surely failed miserably.
Banana leaves, a variety of flower decorations and exciting boat races are some of the best highlights that anyone can see in Onam festivals. For Onam sadhya dishes erissery, rice puttu, kadala curry, rasam, pal payasam, thenga choru, avial, pachadi are some of the delicious dishes and popular ones which are usually included in Sadhya meal.
After seeing all the reactions on Twitter and all other social media platforms, the clothing brand deleted the post which they posted on Instagram depicting Onam Sadhya. But yet their Facebook post still remains.
