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Twitter slams KitKat for Lord Jagannath photo on wrapper, Nestle India reacts

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Amrutha Pagad
Amrutha PagadJan 18, 2022 | 14:19

Twitter slams KitKat for Lord Jagannath photo on wrapper, Nestle India reacts

Nestle India is in the eye of the storm over its product, KitKat’s wrapper design. Netizens have expressed their displeasure over the KitKat wrapper depicting Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Mata Subhadra.  

WHY: Netizens say that the wrappers with religious depictions will be ultimately thrown in the dustbin or on the road or in the drainage, which will be disrespectful to the gods.

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RESPONSE: Nestle India that owns KitKat products replied to the complaints saying that they are apologetic and didn’t mean to hurt any religious sentiments.

The FMCG major also said that the visual was inspired by the government tourism website of Odisha, and that they wanted to celebrate the culture of the state with the design of ‘Pattachitra’. Pattachitra is a term used for traditional cloth painting.

The company also said that sometimes their customers like to collect beautiful wrappers and that’s why they used the design.

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Nonetheless, the company has now announced that they will withdraw the packages from the market immediately.

On the other hand, a Hindu religious outfit filed a complaint with the police in Cuttack demanding the immediate removal of the pictures and also action against the company.

Some Netizens even went on to say ‘boycott Kitkat’.  

WHEN NESTLE MADE A FACTUAL ERROR: Nestle India has been in the dock once earlier, for its KitKat wrapper design. In April 2021, Nestle India made a ‘factual error’ on its wrapper while trying to depict Manipur's Keibul Lamjao National Park. This was promptly pointed out by the Forest Department.

In the wrapper, the national park was wrongly depicted to be located in Meghalaya instead of Manipur. The Forest Department also pointed out that the Red Panda shown on the wrapper with Keibul Lamjao National Park text was misleading, as the species is not found in the national park.

Nestle India reacted to the controversy saying that they were apologetic for making an unintentional error.

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FOR PLAYING INTO ASIAN STEREOTYPES

kitkat-aus-647_011822113436.jpg
KitKat packaging in Australia shows a Chinese rice picker. Photo: Nestle Australia

Not just India, but the Swiss multinational company was criticised for playing into the Asian stereotype when it launched exclusive Japanese KitKats in Australia too. The Japanese Kitkats had stereotypically wrong packaging.

Nestle had launched KitKat flavours that are exclusively available in Japan in Australia, with what it deemed as cute Japanese caricature packaging. But one of the caricatures was a farmer with a conical hat who, many claimed, represented a Chinese rice picker and not Japanese.

Last updated: January 18, 2022 | 14:19
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