Trolled over shoe ad graffiti, Puma India issues apology

The company said it had a meeting with heritage body INTACH, civic authorities and the owner of one of the properties, and it was decided that the production company involved in the campaign would “restore the wall” to its original look. 

The precinct falls in the Chawri Bazaar area and the graffiti splashed on the wall made of lakhori bricks and limestone plaster had sparked outrage among conservationists and other heritage experts. “We are sorry that we have unintentionally hurt sentiments of people,” Puma India, a subsidiary of German sportswear firm Puma, said in a statement.

The company said post discussion, all the stakeholders had also “aligned” to the fact that there was “need to raise awareness” among the owners about guidelines to preserve heritage properties.

“We are very proud of India’s heritage and would never like to compromise it in any way. Our using this building wall for our campaign shoot has been completely unintentional and clearly due to lack of information,” a Puma India spokesperson said. 

INTACH Delhi Convenor Swapna Liddle, who had highlighted the issue on social media this week, had earlier said she feared the paintings might cause “irreversible damage” to the18th-century era structures.

An official spokesperson of Puma India, when contacted, had said: “We believe all the required permissions were obtained to carry out the shoot. However,given the point raised we are investigating the matter.” Dubbed the ‘Suede Gully’, the three-minute-long video,shot over a month ago in multiple languages and four cities,is a creative endeavour that “captures the grit of Indian streets,” Puma India website said. 

“It has been brought to our notice that a building wall used in our ‘Suede Gully’ video shoot is a heritage site. As apart of the shoot, graffiti was done on the wall of the building by a local artist,” the company said. The appointed production house had “taken necessary written permissions” from the owner of this private property, it said.