Earlier this week, Amazon released an ad that is exactly what we need in the wake of this election.
The ad features a Vicar and Imam visiting each other and conversing over tea. The men are Gary Bradley, Vicar at St Mary’s and Paddington Green in London and Zubier Mohammad, principal of the Muslim School Oadby in Leicester. After their conversation, they stand up to meet each other and leave, they rub their knees in pain and after going separate ways they decide to buy the other kneepads through Amazon Prime. The ad ends when the Vicar and Imam kneel to pray at their place of worship wearing the gift they received, touched by the heart warming gesture.
While the ad was created to promote Prime, the display of love and understanding has impacted many. The ad was a brilliant prompt that we should strive to promote tolerance, acceptance and interfaith love.
The ad offers a very obvious counterargument to rhetoric coming from president-elect, Donald trump and his supporters. It was only last December when Trump called for the “complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” and he continued to make remarks about the Muslim ban. So its great that this ad comes at a time where people are scared and ideas like Muslim registries are terrifyingly close to actually becoming real policies.
In America, ads at this time of year may not be so important but in the UK Christmas ads are looked forward to more than anything. You could say these ads are anticipated just like the Super bowl ads in the States. So what Amazon Prime has displayed is amazing for a country where Muslims make up around 5% of the population and for a country that voted for Brexit mostly because they were dissatisfied with the number of immigrants.
So, shout out to the team at Amazon for promoting their message of support and for showing that we do have the potential to reach out and defend other rights of religion and beliefs. Amid chaos, this was a much needed reminder for empathy and friendship.
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