The US clothing line Gap Inc has backed its ad featuring a turbaned Sikh model Waris Ahluwalia when a Muslim senior editor shared a vandalized poster on Twitter.
On Monday, Arsalan Iftikhar, senior editor at The Islamic Monthly and founder of TheMuslimGuy.com, posted a picture of the vandalized GAP poster. The tagline of the GAP ad 'Make Love' was changed to 'Make Bombs' with a remark 'Please stop driving taxis' scribbled under it.
The next day, GAP Twitter asked Iftikhar about the location of the vandalized ad poster. Moreover the company changed its background picture on the micro-blogging site to the 'Make Love' poster in support of the Sikh-American actor designer Ahluwalia.
"When I first saw my Facebook friend's photo of this GAP subway advertisement defaced by vandals with racist messages, I wanted the world to see how millions of brown people are viewed in America today," Iftikhar told The Huffington Post.
While Twitter came in defense of Ahluwalia, many praised GAP's response to the bashing up of their model.
NaFFAA National tweeted, "I feel really good when I see what GAP did quickly right after this ad featuring a SIKH model was defaced."
On networking site Facebook, members of the Sikh community began a 'Thank you,GAP' campaign for the clothing line to show their appreciation on the prompt reaction.
"Gap has provided the Sikh community with an invaluable platform through its latest marketing campaign. Let's thank Gap for their incredible support!," the page description reads. In order to 'participate' in the campaign, the members advise supporters to either visit a GAP store or take a picture in front of the GAP poster that features Ahluwalia and share it on social media.
One such picture was even shortlisted by Ahluwalia's official FB page in which a young Sikh boy poses with a girl.
