ISSUE
Friday, August 15, 2025
Volume 16 . Issue 72
American ice cream giant Haagen Dazs wanted to make a cool winter entry into the ice cream market in India, instead landed in a controversy it is not likely to forget in a hurry.
Teaser advertisements in a posh mall in Delhi announcing the launch of the ice cream outlet had a line saying entry “restricted only to holders of international passports”. In effect Indians not allowed.
A passerby who spotted it, photographed it and sent it to the Times of India blog. The same was then put on Facebook which triggered an avalanche of protests from across the globe.
Within hours of the damage, officials from Haagen-Dazs apologised, saying the offending promotional line contained the “wrong choice of words”.
Haagen Dazs also cut off ties with TBWA the agency that created the offensive campaign. Although TBWA India was assigned only this teaser campaign, it was seen as an obvious choice to manage Haagen-Dazs India’s account.
American ice cream giant Haagen Dazs wanted to make a cool winter entry into the ice cream market in India, instead landed in a controversy it is not likely to forget in a hurry. Teaser advertisements in a posh mall in Delhi announcing the launch of the ice cream outlet had a line saying entry...
American ice cream giant Haagen Dazs wanted to make a cool winter entry into the ice cream market in India, instead landed in a controversy it is not likely to forget in a hurry.
Teaser advertisements in a posh mall in Delhi announcing the launch of the ice cream outlet had a line saying entry “restricted only to holders of international passports”. In effect Indians not allowed.
A passerby who spotted it, photographed it and sent it to the Times of India blog. The same was then put on Facebook which triggered an avalanche of protests from across the globe.
Within hours of the damage, officials from Haagen-Dazs apologised, saying the offending promotional line contained the “wrong choice of words”.
Haagen Dazs also cut off ties with TBWA the agency that created the offensive campaign. Although TBWA India was assigned only this teaser campaign, it was seen as an obvious choice to manage Haagen-Dazs India’s account.
Leave a Comment