Fortune Magazine
The cover of Fortune Magazine that featured Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos as Lord Vishnu, a Hindu deity. The magazine then apologised.
The cover story, titled "Amazon Takes India," reported on how Bezos and a specialised team in India were looking to tackle the next "trillion-dollar market." The art was created by Nigel Buchanan, an Australian illustrator who also works for The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Time.
"The cover of Fortune's January 2016 international edition featured an illustration of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos as a Hindu deity," said editor Alan Murray. "Neither the artist nor the editors of Fortune had any intention of parodying a particular deity or of offending members of the Hindu faith. It is clear that we erred and for that, we apologize."
The President of the Universal Society of Hinduism, Rajan Zed, was one of the loudest voices to criticise Fortune for the cover. In a statement, Fortune thanked him and agreed that the cover was wrong.
Zed asked Fortune, and other media companies, to immerse themselves in Hinduism and argued that no religion should be ridiculed, no matter how small.
"Lord Vishnu was a highly revered major deity in Hinduism meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be used indecorously or thrown around loosely in re-imagined versions for dramatic effect," he said.
Anil Dash, an entrepreneur and prominent member of the technology community, also tweeted criticism of the cover.
Ok, cool @FortuneMagazine now do one with Bezos as Jesus in honor of Black Friday? pic.twitter.com/deJ6fmhFCC
- Anil Dash (@anildash) January 9, 2016Thing is, I don't care about some "sacrilege". What I detest is the evidence that no PoC at Fortune has enough power to stop this idiocy.
- Anil Dash (@anildash) January 9, 2016Also, many Indian people (like my dad) were born under colonial rule. So a headline discussing a corporate "invasion" is probably not ideal.
- Anil Dash (@anildash) January 9, 2016Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through hispersonal investment company Bezos Expeditions.