The commercial starts with, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” a quote of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
A 30-second commercial on the ongoing farmers protest in India was aired on Sunday in California’s Fresno City during the Super Bowl 2021. The Super Bowl, an annual football championship of the National Football League in the United States, is one of America’s biggest sporting events that is watched by millions across the country. The commercial was aired only in the Fresno county area and not nationally.
The advertisement calls the farmers agitations as the “the largest protest in history.” It starts with. “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” a quote of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The video features photographs and video clips of farmers protesting in India against the Indian government’s three controversial farm laws.
The City of Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer is featured in the video and he says, “we want you to know – our brothers and sisters in India – that we stand with you.” It mentions international pop icon Rihanna tweeting on the protest. The video also cites 7 human rights violations and arrests of journalists.
According to a report in the Indian newspaper The Indian Express, Indian American banker Raj Sodhi-Layne and her friends put together the 30-second advertisement and the funds for the airing was raised through crowdfunding platform “GoFundMe” where they raised $11,123 within a day. Layne told the paper that, “Our initial goal was to raise $852,000 to air the ad in all 43 major cities across the United States. But we were a bit late for that.” The video was produced by local artist and producer Shar Singh of Teji Videos.
The video has drawn attention and was posted by several social media users. Indian-Canadian musician Jazzy B shared the commercial on Twitter.
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