Netizens as well as Bollywood celebs are raging at a couple of new ads launched by a perfume brand. In the new advertisements, women are shown getting scared that they will be sexually assaulted by a group of men who make suggestive comments. The appalling advertisements are facing the heat for allegedly advocating gang rape culture. After the netizens slammed the commercial, several celebs including Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Hrithik Roshan, Richa Chadha, Sona Mohapatra, Farhan Akhtar, Swara Bhasker and others have also panned the advertisement for promoting sexual violence against women.
The commercial is from the perfume brand Layer Shot and makes a pun on the word ‘shot’. The ad has received severe backlash at it attempts to cash in on a woman’s fright as men approach her for a ‘shot’ giving sexual innuendo to the word. However, it later shows that the shot turns out to be the deodorant and the men were talking about the perfume’s bottle. While in another ad four men barge into a room where a couple are getting intimate and tells the man that they want to have a ‘shot’ now instilling fear and anxiety on the woman’s face. Later it is revealed that they were asking for the deodorant bottle that was kept on to the couple’s bedside table. Check out the reactions of celebs below:
Shameful and disgusting. How many levels of clearances did it take for this commercial to be green lit. How many people thought this was ok? I’m so glad that it was called out and now the ministry has taken it down. Appalling!
— PRIYANKA (@priyankachopra) June 4, 2022
A teenage girl was gang raped in Hyderabad-such incidents happen daily in India.. companies like @layerr_shot choose to make TV adverts joking abt & ‘cool-ifying’ rape & gangrape. Beyond disgusting! Not just tone deaf, also criminal! Absolutely shameful! What agency created it? https://t.co/8tRbDTfuez
— Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) June 4, 2022
What incredibly tasteless and twisted minds it must take to think up, approve and create these stinking body spray ‘gang rape’ innuendo ads..!! Shameful.
— Farhan Akhtar (@FarOutAkhtar) June 4, 2022
This ad is not an accident. To make an ad, a brand goes through several layers of decision making. Creatives, script, agency, client, casting… DOES EVERYONE THINK RAPE IS A JOKE? Revelatory! This brand, the agency that made this ad need to be sued for the filth they’re serving. https://t.co/M3YjbljAYN
— RichaChadha (@RichaChadha) June 4, 2022
The centre has ordered for the ‘suspension’ of this ad promoting Rape culture from TV et all. That it played out for clearing all filters is sad enough. The makers of the ad, as well as the brand needs to pay a hefty sum to a worthy cause; held accountable even commercially. https://t.co/mX6NDckPAU
— Sona Mohapatra (@sonamohapatra) June 5, 2022
On the other hand, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry asked Twitter and YouTube to remove the videos of the advertisements from their social media platforms. The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) also issued a notice to Delhi Police for the registration of an FIR in the matter, said DCW's Swati Maliwal.
I&B Ministry asks Twitter, YouTube to take down "derogatory (Layer'r Shot) ad circulating on social media." pic.twitter.com/9aFUlKf97z
— ANI (@ANI) June 4, 2022
I&B Ministry, in a letter addressed to Twitter and YouTube stated, “The above-mentioned videos are detrimental to the portrayal of women in the interest of decency or morality, and in violation of rule 3(1)(b)(ii) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which inter-alia provides that the users shall not host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any information which is insulting or harassing on the basis of gender. It may be mentioned that the concerned videos were also broadcast on TV. In this regard, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), the body which lays down the Code for self-regulation in advertising on TV in accordance with rule 7(2)(ix) of the Cable Television Network Rules 1994, has also found the video to be in violation of its guidelines. In this regard, ASCI has notified the advertiser to suspend the ad on an immediate basis.”
(Source: Twitter)
