Australian brewer’s continued use of Hindu gods on labels draws ire of religious group

The label for the ginger beer

A religious activist group has renewed concerns about a Sydney brewery using images of Hindu gods on its ginger beer bottle labels, over a year after the company said it would remove them.

Brookvale Union, which uses the slogan “Quality nonsense”, apologised to Hindus offended by the labelling after receiving complaints in 2013, but the Universal Society of Hinduism has issued a new public complaint that the offending bottles are still on sale.

The bottles, which feature Hindu deities Ganesh and Lakshmi, carry the slogan “Spicy yet mild, dry but wet, smooth yet sharp, tight but loose”. The group also says that the company has not removed the “objectionable images” from its website, which it had said it would when the issue was first raised two years ago.