Walk into one of the 866 Gap retail stores in the United States this Holiday season, shop online at Gap.com, or visit the company’s Facebook page and you might be surprised to see the face of Indian-American designer and actor Waris Ahluwalia staring back at you.

Gap’s Holiday 2013 ad campaign, which launched this week, has drawn compliments for featuring a diverse group of personalities. Ahluwalia can be seen posing in his photograph with artist and filmmaker Quentin Jones.

Below is a sampling of the comments that can be found on Gap’s official Facebook page:

Keenu Hundal “Saw this ad in teh [sic] downtown San Francisco store and literally stopped in my tracks. I was so happy to see you all select a Sikh male in your new ad campaign. We need to make the Sikh male image more mainstream in order to educate the general public on who we are, so that ignorace does not breed hate any longer. Thank you, Gap!”

Navdeep Kaur “Thanks for honoring Sikh culture in your new ad campaign, Gap. #Respect”

Nancy Ewelike “I simply love the first photo. I love how his culture is being embraced (from head adornment to full beard). Well done, GAP!”

Satnam Singh Paprala “It felt awesome walking past this poster wearing turban…! #sikhi #proud”

Andy Can “Wow Sikhs are now in international models”

Folks on Twitter were equally excited.

Life-size photo of Waris Ahluwalia in the @Gap. Inspiring a new generation of young #Sikh models. @HOUSE_of_WARIS pic.twitter.com/5HpvfsJnh3 — Simran Jeet Singh (@SimranColumbia) October 30, 2013

Love this @Gap ad feat. Waris Ahluwalia! So great to see us South Asians feat. in mainstream media. #advertising pic.twitter.com/OvY5A0XA28 — Bhavna Batra (@MsBhavnaB) November 4, 2013

Ahluwalia has become one of the most prominent Sikh celebrities in America, not just through his House of Waris line, but also because of appearances in films such as Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Spike Lee’s Inside Man.

And if that wasn’t enough to warm your heart this holiday season, how about this photo of Nashville and Friday Night Lights star Connie Britton with her adopted son Yoby from Ethiopia.

G.B. doesn’t stand for Gareth Bale. It might stand for Graduated, Barely (from law school). After spending time in Texas and Pennsylvania, he now lives in Northern California where he makes gifs and watches a lot of TV, movies and sports.