Celebrity hairstylist Jawed Habib seeks apology for offending religious sentiments with ad

Renowned hair stylist Jawed Habib was trolled and grilled on social media after putting up an advertisement on a Bengali newspaper, promoting his hair salon, for the upcoming Durga Puja that showed Goddess Durga having a spa day.

The Goddess, along with her children Kartik, Lakshmi, Saraswati and Ganesh, in the print ad, were seen at the Habib's beauty parlour, while the tag reads- 'Gods too visit JH salon'.

The ad did not go well with many, leading to an uproar on the social media, for hurting their religious sentiments.

The tweets read as, "Mr. Javed habib shame on u,tell me where is mohmmed and almighty allah...give your services to them too."

Following this, he issued an apology and assured that action will be taken on the same.
Speaking to ANI, Habib said, "The ad was prepared not by us directly, but by one of our master franchise in Kolkata. Everyone needs to understand that Jawed Habib is a franchising company; and we have around 22 master franchises with 500 partners, so they need to take permission from us. I don't know what happened this time as they did not take permission. But whatever it is, he is my partner and 'his mistake is my mistake'. It is a blunder and all I can say is SORRY!!"

Along with apologising for the ad, Habib said that being abusive on social media is not the answer or solution to any problem.

"People know Jawed Habib for the last 30 years; and I can only talk of hair language or styles. Being an Indian; I am apologetic but the common man needs to understand things, rather than abusing. Using abusive language is not the answer. This is a mistake and I pledge and request that this will not happen again. And I will also take action against the one who objected to this in a negative way," he said.

Earlier in the day, Habib issued an apology and wished everyone for the upcoming festive season and Durga Puja.

The apology read, "If our ad campaign had inadvertently hurt anyone's sentiments we apologise for that."