Hoardings Thanking Modi Taken Down in Toronto Citing Complaints
The ad company took down the hoardings following ‘community complaints on creative design’.
advertisement
Not even a day after nine billboards thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India for the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines propped up in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), the ad company took down the hoardings following ‘community complaints on creative design,’ Hindustan Times reported.
The billboards were sponsored by an Indo-Canadian community group Hindu Forum Canada (HFC), and displayed an image of Modi in the foreground with Indian and Canadian flags in the background. It read, “Thank You, India & PM Narendra Modi. Long Live Canada India Friendship.”
The ad campaign was in partnership with Outfront Media, which emailed HFC on Thursday, 11 March saying they “had to pause the digital impression because of community complaints on the creative design”.
On Twitter, many handles lauded the springing up of these billboards, while others clarified that they were sponsored by a Hindu group, and highlighted the way their emergency was covered by some sections of the Indian news media.
Reacting to the billboard and its coverage by certain India media, Abhishek Baxi wrote on Twitter, “Throughout the [news] story, the verbiage is 'Canada ne...'. Not, a group of Canadians, a Canadian non-profit, NRIs of Canada... you get the drift.”
Some other twitter handles, too, stressed on this instance of selective reporting.
‘Billboards Speak Volumes,’ Says Union Minister
Union Minister Som Prakash praised the billboard, saying that they display PM Modi’s leadership during the health crisis.
BJP MPs also lauded the billboards on the social media platform.
‘Why Report Billboards 9,000 Miles Away’
Some users questioned why billboards ‘9,000 miles away’ were the subject of interest, as opposed to others seen around our nation.
Journalist Uzair Hazan Rizvi took to Twitter, asking news agency ANI why it had failed to report on billboards put up in Lucknow by the Samajwadi Party on a previous occasion, but was shedding light on pro-government billboards in another country.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)