Trigger Warning: The videos embedded in this article can be triggering for some viewers. Reader discretion is advised.
Creating content that gives zero f*cks to basic social responsibility is outrageous. I am speaking in the context of the recent back-to-back disgusting advertisements that Layer’r Shot, a deodorant brand, released. We’re wondering why on earth were these ads even made? How did they get an approval? How is this okay?
Twitter is boiling over these ads, and for a good reason.
Can’t find the ad online but here it is, apparently being played during the match. I didn’t see it till @hitchwriter showed it to me
— Permanently Exhausted Pigeon (@monikamanchanda) June 3, 2022
Who are the people making these ads really? pic.twitter.com/zhXEaMqR3Q
And NO, Please DO NOT ask me what is so wrong with it. Or DO NOT tell me to lighten up and take a joke. Or chill and move on! Or why am I making this bigger by bringing fear here. Just DO NOT! I will block you!
— Permanently Exhausted Pigeon (@monikamanchanda) June 3, 2022
How does this kind of ads get approved, sick and outright disgusting. Is @layerr_shot full of perverts? Second ad with such disgusting content from Shot.@monikamanchanda pic.twitter.com/hMEaJZcdmR
— Rishita💝 (@RishitaPrusty_) June 3, 2022
This is neither funny nor entertaining. You’re insinuating rape, normalizing the idea of the male gaze. It’s not amusing. Women all across India go through catcalling, eve-teasing, sexism, objectification, or even outright molestation in the form of domestic abuse or rape on a day-to-day basis. And these are facts; google them anytime. Marketing a product premised upon this harsh reality is simply not okay.
oh my god. This ad was triggering for me, what would it be for those living with trauma.
— Mandira Kala (@MandiraKala) June 3, 2022
So difficult to process how blasé the makers can be about real-lived threats and experiences that become core to our way of living/surviving.
This is so distasteful. Don't know what kind of people have thought this would be a good ad.
— Fazal (@fazal_7864) June 3, 2022
I saw this on Instagram. It trivialises the very serious issue of sexual harrasment. Shame on the creative team
— Ankita – Read my novel 'Indigo Mansion'😀 (@AnkitaSharma_26) June 4, 2022
Such a cheap Ad, why would they make it and on top of it why it is been aired.
— Soniya Sharma (@soniyasharmahr) June 3, 2022
This is horrific! I winced, not cringed.
— Chitra | Bombay Bellyrina (@BombayBellyrina) June 3, 2022
I’m fairly certain no women were consulted during the creative process. Such a triggering piece.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has taken the requisite action.
Ministry orders Twitter, YouTube to take down controversial body spray ad with “rape jokes” pic.twitter.com/gY2opJEWIn
— NDTV (@ndtv) June 4, 2022
Now a days advertisement is becoming too openly showing vulgarity without thinking social impact on the innocent viewers
— somasekhara reddy (@somareddy59) June 4, 2022
Rape jokes remind them of their governance: (and mind you, these are only the reported cases which police agreed to register! Thousands of cases are not reported by the victim/family due to stigma attached and an equal number police refuse to register) pic.twitter.com/5T8huEbZ0W
— Rajendra Kumbhat (@Enraged_Indian) June 4, 2022
But is this the ultimate solution? It’s not just about a brand or one ad in isolation. There are several ads, several songs, several movies. Not just that, there are bazillion real life incidents.
This is the website/owner which is manufacturing this Brand, I believe more or less they approved the ad in question here. God knows for what reasons we have regulatory guidelines or an ombudsman before passing such ads @ascionline do you guys have any clue? Some shud file a case pic.twitter.com/lqInBryCbF
— Best Regards – PK (@gotcrashed) June 3, 2022
What makes it worse is they’ve shown the girl almost feeling guilty for thinking the way she did. NO. NO. The fear is so very real.
— Aakanksha Singh Devi (@AakankshaSD) June 3, 2022
Just a general lack of sensitivity and humanity. Not just the company (client) but far worse is the advertising company which conceptualised it & shot it & worst is the creative director who though it up. https://t.co/UwpYXMTpvK
— 🇺🇦 Soumitra Pathare সৌমিত্র சௌமித்ரா பாடாரே (@netshrink) June 4, 2022
WTH.. this is obnoxious. Damn the agency and the client. Disgusting. @layerr_shot https://t.co/P5iPdv0wQF
— sangeeta sanghvi (@sangeetasanghvi) June 4, 2022
WHO IS WRITING FOR THEM. WHO IS APPROVING THIS. I JUST WANNA TALK
— asdosays (@asdosays) June 3, 2022
Every woman in India is familiar with that flinch, but these folks have leveraged it to sell cheap perfume. Great.
— sushmita sundaram (@sushmitas) June 3, 2022
The issue here is also about the larger mentality that manifests such demeaning ideas. It’s sickening. Sexualizing women for the sake of grabbing eyeballs is not okay. Jokes around rape are NOT OKAY. Period.