Surf Excel Holi ad controversy: Why people are trolling Microsoft Excel over detergent's ad?

Surf Excel Holi ad controversy: Software giant Microsoft's Excel has caught itself with an unexpected casualty by falling as the victim of the row over the recent advertisement of Surf Excel which has drawn a huge amount of flak for its Hindu-Muslim concept. People are lashing out at the detergent brand all over the social media for showing a girl dropping her Muslim friend at a mosque to pray on Holi. After being upset with the ad, netizens have expressed their displeasure on various social media platforms. Besides Facebook and Twitter, people have taken it to the Google Play store to show their anger. However, mistaking the Microsoft Excel app for an official Surf Excel app, people unknowingly review-bombed the software giant with negative comments and downgraded the app. A user wrote, “boykot sarf excel. hindu birodh hai. pakisthan me ja kar business kar. (Boycott Surf Excel. It is anti-Hindu. Take your business to Pakistan.)" Another, coming in late in the day, wrote, “Ye hindu virodhi hai,” meaning “this is anti-Hindu.”

When you are confused between #SurfExcel and Microsoft Excel, shit happens. pic.twitter.com/vxJaVfLzcw

— Aparna (@chhuti_is) March 11, 2019

In solidarity with @HUL_News, I'm going to install @Microsoft Excel on my mobile today.

— Pranjal Dube (@pranjaldube) March 11, 2019

I think they got lost online a bit. pic.twitter.com/zo5AqSxb5J

— Karthik (@beastoftraal) March 11, 2019

Surf Excel’s one-minute ad titled ‘Rang Laaye Sang’ (colours bring us together) features two kids, a little Hindu girl and a Muslim boy, enjoying Holi with other kids. The ad shows the girl choosing to get stained with colours to protect her Muslim friend who has to go to a nearby mosque to offer namaaz. The ad ends with the boy entering the mosque, in a pristine white kurta-pyjama, and promising the girl he’ll join in the celebrations soon after. However, the idea behind the ad did not went down well with some of the people who argued that the ad was promoting “love jihad” and dubbed it controversial saying it promotes “Hindu phobia”. Others questioned the logic of the ad as namaaz can be offered at home too. Some others were irked by Holi colours being compared to ‘daag’. A few even asked Hindustan Unilever, the company which owns Surf Excel, if they would reverse the gender in the ad and show it differently. While many others came forward and slammed the people who tried to promote hate online. They lauded the brand for its advertisement and said Holi has always been a festival for all and the ad truly reflects what it means to be in India. However, this is not the first time that people have review-bombed the wrong app. Earlier, a leaked report said that Snapchat CEO Evan Speigel had said that the company didn’t plan to expand into India as the country was “too poor”—and Indians were instantly outraged. So much so that many took to Google Play to downrate Snapchat. Only, many people actually ended up giving one-star ratings to the Indian e-commerce company Snapdeal by mistake, either mixing the two up, or not realising that there’s a difference.