Fortune magazine has apologised for the cover of its January edition, which featured the boss of Amazon in the form of Hindu god Lord Vishnu.
The magazine’s editor Alan Murray admitted to the illustration being a mistake, and said that neither the creators of the work or the editors had intended to cause offence.
The apology followed a complaint from a Hindu group that claimed that the portrayal of Bezos as Lord Vishnu was offensive to followers of the religion.
Murray wrote: “The cover of Fortune’s January 2016 international edition featured an illustration of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos as a Hindu deity. 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.”
Fortune’s story was about Amazon’s ambitions to succeed in India. The cover line readL ‘Amazon invades India’.