Perfume Ad Taken Down By Government For ‘Romanticizing Gang R*pe’
Screenshot via Layer’r Shot
In what has been deemed a step back for advertising, a set of appalling perfume commercials has incited outrage in India for seemingly promoting sexual violence.
According to Livemint, the Indian government has ordered advertisements by local fragrance brand Layer’r Shot to be suspended. It has also reached out to Twitter and YouTube with a request to have the campaign removed. The government was impelled to take action following complaints by social media users and the Delhi Commission for Women.
One of the spots, reposted on Twitter, shows four men noticing a woman and debating among themselves who gets to be with her, without her consent. One of the men steps up and spritzes the fragrance on himself, therefore making the decision for his friends—and the woman—that he should be the one to make the move.
What’s unreal to me is that a bunch of highly paid educated ‘smart’ people at ad agency, client and ad film director level went thru the process of green lighting this advert
— atul kasbekar (@atulkasbekar) June 5, 2022
What was the logic?
Let’s be different?
Users have bemoaned how the campaign likely passed approvals by several executives before being broadcast on television. “Ad agency scripting it, client finalizing it, models enacting it, channels playing it… shows how numb we are as a society to respect women’s sentiments,” writes Member of Parliament Priyanka Chaturvedi.
Accordingly, the nation’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting condemned the campaign for demeaning women “in the interest of decency and morality.” It also argued that the creative violated its ethics code.
In the wake of the backlash, the brand has issued a statement that some have perceived as a non-apology.
“We never intended to hurt anyone’s sentiments or feelings or outrage any woman's modesty or promote any sort of culture, as wrongly perceived by some,” says Layer’r Shot. “However, we sincerely apologize for the advertisements that consequentially caused rage amongst individuals and several communities and beg their pardon.”
Layer’r Shot oddly insists that it launched the campaign “only after due and mandatory approvals.”
“Most importantly, we have voluntarily informed all our media partners to stop the telecast/broadcasting of both the TV advertisements from June 4 with immediate effect,” it adds.
This “apology,” too, has been met with great disdain.
“This is a lesson in how one shouldn’t write an apology,” says freelance writer Aparnna Hajirnis. “What they mean to say is, ‘we are pissed that some of y’all outraged and we had to take down our ad.’”
“Thank you for putting this ‘it’s not me, it’s you’ apology,” comments reporter Saumya Tewari.
[via Livemint and Twitter, cover image via Layer’r Shot]
