India asks Twitter, YouTube to dump 'sick' perfume ad: 'Which dumb creative approved it?'

INDIA'S information and broadcasting ministry on Saturday (4) asked social media sites Twitter and YouTube to remove from their platforms the videos of a controversial commercial of a perfume brand which has been accused of “promoting sexual violence against women”.

The ministry wrote to Twitter and YouTube saying the videos were “detrimental to the portrayal of women in the interest of decency and morality” and in violation of Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code).

“It has come to the notice of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting that an inappropriate and derogatory advertisement of a deodorant is circulating on social media. The Ministry has asked Twitter and YouTube to immediately pull down all instances of this advertisement,” an official spokesperson said.

The ministry, in the letters to Twitter and YouTube, said that the Advertisement Standards Council of India (ASCI) too has found the videos in violation of its guidelines and asked the advertiser to suspend the advertisement on an immediate basis.

A couple of videos of the perfume brand has irked netizens who have slammed it saying the commercials reflected a poor taste.

Social media users have accused the videos of promoting rape culture.

In one of the videos, four men were seen having a talk inside what looks like a beauty section at a store. There is only one bottle left in the shelf and the way the men discussed who among them would take it, a woman customer near them was seen absolutely shocked.

“Hum chaar aur ye ek.. Shot kon lega (We’re four and there’s only left..Who will take the shot?),” the men discussed. Upon hearing their discussion, the woman turns back shocked and angered at them. However, to her surprise, she finds that the men are discussing the perfume.

In the other ad, a couple is shown in the bedroom. Four male friends of the guy enter the room and ask, “Shot mara lagta hai (Seems you have hit a shot)”, to which he responds, “ha mara na (yes, I did)”. In the next scene, a friend says, “Ab humari baari (it’s now our turn), and goes on to pick up a perfume bottle kept aside from the bed in the room, leaving the woman present on the scene in a mixed state of mind.