kvale Union Brewery has said that it was never their intention to offend devotees of the Hindu religion after the president of the Universal Society of Hinduism Rajan Zed, accused the company of being culturally insensitive.The brewery recently released a ginger beer with a label featuring an image of Hindu Lord Ganesh’s face on the body of Hindu Goddess Lakshmi’s body - as well as displaying various other Hindu symbols.
Zed said that label was ‘highly inappropriate’, as using Hindu deities, concepts or symbols for commercial purposes is highly insensitive to religion's devotees.
Brookvale states that no one at the company is of the Hindu religion, and as such, had ‘no appreciation for what this [the deities] represents’ until now.
“The original brief to our designer was “Flair, feel and colours from the Asian continent” being a product with ginger – which primarily comes from Asia,” said a spokesperson for the Brewery.
“As it turns out the centrepiece of the label is very Ganesh in its look – we have now been alerted to this and what Ganesh represents”.
“...With over 4,200 religions in the world, it is an impossibility for us to be cognisant of every single inference, reference and innuendo we may have unintentionally made during a design process like this.”
The company reiterated that the label was not designed with the intention to offend, and that they will now be looking at alternative design options.
