In a rather bizarre ad goof-up, e-commerce giant Amazon has managed to upset Sindhis in its latest print ad. The company decided to thank all Indians, where it wrote ‘Thank you’ in various Indian languages except for one – Sindhi. While many lauded the ad on social media, someone noticed the lack of Sindhi language and published an advertorial in print showing his angst. He wrote a letter to all Sindhis to unite against this discrimination, and asked Amazon India to be sensitive and rectify the ad. Also Read - Microsoft lays off employees from customer-focused R&D projects: Report
Ever since this ad came out, it has been doing the rounds on social media with the hashtag #SindhisIgnored. The company is receiving flak, especially from Sindhis for not recognizing the language. Also Read - Elon Musk invites Parag Agrawal for public debate, sets condition on Twitter deal: Check details
Wait what?!? @amazonIN Did you see this? #RUSerious pic.twitter.com/lgqbbQ4JHK Also Read - Twitter confirms hackers took advantage of bug that exposed data of 5.4 million users
— Achint Parekh (@Achint) July 13, 2015
In the ad, the citizen boasted about Sindhis purchasing power globally, and therefore stressing the community’s significant contribution towards Amazon’s overall revenue.
“We Sindhis are asking you to include Thank You in SIndhi in your ad that was featured on July 2nd. Please be fully aware that Sindhi is an official Indian language as per the Indian constitution and that Sind is noted even in the National Anthem. I’m very sure that Sindhis are probably your largest customers yielding to your bottom line. We are looking forward for you to rectify this mistake in print and/or social media. We may be a small community but our buying power is enormous that extends globally. Thank you very much. Vadi Meherbaani,” he wrote in the ad.
Here are some of the tweets coming out of this ad that Amazon India printed out in newspapers as a goodwill gesture, but backfired badly.
I thought Sindhi language was ignored in Paxtan. It’s no different in Baharat too. @amazonIN https://t.co/VFBUgv8sne #SindhisIgnored
— Himalaya (@Himalaya888) July 14, 2015
Disappointed! We contribute to the Indian Society just as much as any other community does! @amazonIN #SindhisIgnored pic.twitter.com/pEqCg50w9Z
— Dhanraj Madnani (@dhanraj_madnani) July 14, 2015
@amazonIN high time you fixed this, #sindhipower #sindhisignored pic.twitter.com/wIeNMjrEl1
— Bharat Motwani (@bharatm) July 13, 2015
@amazonIN that’s why we use flipkart.. It doesn’t use such stupid ads!! #sindhisignored
— Rahul Bhatia (@rdbhere) July 13, 2015
Checked out #sindhisignored hashtag, found someone asking discount from Amazon for their blunder. Way to enforce a stereotype, guys 😂😂😂
— Nish (@RootKanal) July 13, 2015
Dear @amazonIN Rectify the mistake in print and social media -Sindhi is an official language as per the Indian constitution #sindhisignored
— Rahul Raghani (@luckygr8) July 13, 2015
boycotting @amazonIN until next purchase #sindhisignored https://t.co/kLLMODfQHi
— rajesh tahil (@rajeshtahil) July 13, 2015
Update: Amazon India has rectified the error, and as per the community’s demands, they have posed a corrected ad on their social media pages.
Because we can never thank our customers enough… thank you once again for shopping with us. pic.twitter.com/Kkk0eCcwFf
— Amazon.in (@amazonIN) July 13, 2015
