An Indian perfume company Layer’r Shot issued a clarification along with an apology for multiple advertisements that were criticised heavily by users on social media for propagating ‘rape culture’.
The controversial advertisements featured four men discussing who gets the ‘shot’ on the last remaining bottle of perfume, but showing a woman instead of the bottle. The other shows some men walking in on a man and a woman in a bedroom and talking about getting a shot, but it’s really about the body spray. The commercial comes across as not only trivialising, but also capitalising on a fear that most women face on a daily basis.
‘This is with reference to our recent two TV advertisements of Layer’r SHOT on various broadcasting platforms. We, the brand Layer’r SHOT would like to inform one and all that only after due & mandatory approvals, we have aired the advertisements, wherein, we never intended to hurt anyone’s sentiments or feelings or outrage any women’s modesty or promote any sort of culture, as wrongly perceived by some’, the company responded to the online backlash in an Instagram post.
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Along with this, the company has apologized for their advertisement and asked other media partners to stop the telecast with immediate effect. ‘However, we sincerely apologise for the advertisements that consequentially caused rage amongst individuals & several communities and beg their pardon. Most importantly, we have voluntarily informed all our media partners to stop the telecast/broadcasting of both the TV advertisements from 4th June with immediate effect’.
https://twitter.com/monikamanchanda/status/1532587311019438080
Earlier, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) Chief Swati Maliwal wrote a letter to Union Information & Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur over the advertisement, seeking action in the matter, and also issued a notice to the Delhi Police. As per ANI, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry ordered the suspension of the advertisement and an enquiry as per the advertising code is currently underway.
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