Brands have got caught in the Gaza conflict and they must reduce this risk

livemint.com:

fire for one of its ad campaigns which portrayed a model carrying a mannequin wrapped in white cloth that resembled the type of Muslim burial shrouds that have covered Gazans killed in the war. The company has since apologized and explained that it was shot months before Hamas attacked Israel. But in light of current events, they could have chosen different photos from the campaign shoot—or simply not have run it at all.

Shopper boycotts have become so commonplace we’ve basically become desensitized to them. It would be understandable for brands to brush off the current uproar over the Gaza conflict as another bout of rage that will eventually blow over. But violence in Gaza has resulted in nearly two million Palestinians forced from their homes and some 15,000 civilians and at least 6,000 children killed (though the US State Department has said the death toll could be higher).

The conflict has also pushed the realities of the Israeli occupation into consumers’ social media and news feeds and may not be easily dismissed or forgotten. It’s possible that these searing images will spur broad social shifts comparable to the upheaval set in motion when television networks began to regularly broadcast images from the Vietnam War in the 1960s. And like US universities that have been accused of being insensitive to potential anti-semitic violence, companies have drawn attention for being insensitive or unresponsive to the graphic and disturbing images coming from Gaza.