Outraged Hindus urge IKEA Australia to withdraw ad campaign

Hindus expressed their outrage over an IKEA advert showing a woman in a yoga pose they allege is cultural appropriation and mocking the ancient practice.  

A representative for a global Hindu group is urging the global furniture behemoth to withdraw the recently launched Australian campaign video ‘IKEA product pose Yoga’ and apologise. 

The video features a woman dressed in white fitness clothes and doing various poses while a voiceover gives yoga instructions asking viewers to ‘follow Eve as she takes you through product pose yoga by IKEA.’ 

The video (pictured) features a woman dressed in white fitness clothes and doing various poses while a voiceover gives yoga instructions asking viewers to ‘follow Eve as she takes you through product pose yoga by IKEA’ 

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement from Nevada on Thursday, said the video ‘trivialized the ancient and serious discipline of yoga’ 

The model then displays 15 yoga-asanas associating each with an IKEA product, like ‘barbecue tongs’; with a background voice explaining ‘to quieten the internal fire we have awakened’; ending in Namaste with folded hands. 

Another advert features the woman pose matched with a cocktail martini glass.  

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, said in a statement from Nevada on Thursday, the video ‘trivialized the ancient and serious discipline of yoga.’  

Mr Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, said comparing one of the woman’s poses to a martini glass was ‘highly inappropriate.’ 

He claimed that the use Hindu traditions for commercial purposes was an insult to devotees of the practice because it was ‘religious appropriation’ and was ‘mocking serious spiritual practices.’ 

Mr Zed wants to see the advert withdrawn and apology from IKEA’s global management based in the Netherlands.  

Hinduism is the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about 1.1 billion adherents, Mr Zed explains, adding its ‘rich philosophical thought should not be taken frivolously Shashankasana Or The Rabbit Pose ridiculed.’ 

‘In the Hindu faith, yoga is considered union with God and one of the six systems of Hindu philosophy, and mean for transforming consciousness and purification of the Self and attaining liberation,’ Mr Zed explains. 

In a statement to Daily Mail Australia, a spokesperson for IKEA said the company did not intend to offend Hindus with the advert.  

‘IKEA Australia did not intend for any offence to be caused as a result of the creative of this campaign,’ the spokesperson said.  

Mr Zed wants to see the advert withdrawn and apology from IKEA’s global management based in the Netherlands