New Delhi: The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry on Saturday asked Twitter and YouTube to pull down body spray advertisement that purportedly promotes ‘rape culture’. The controversial advertisement has also been withdraw from the TV channel where it ran.
This comes after Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal wrote to I&B minister Anurag Thakur over the brand’s advertisement. She has asked the Centre to take urgent action in the matter.
It has come to notice of @MIB_India that an inappropriate and derogatory advertisement of a deodorant is circulating on social media. Ministry has asked Twitter and YouTube to immediately pull down all instances of this advertisement.
1/2 pic.twitter.com/IWuqyhJEmw— PIB India (@PIB_India) June 4, 2022
What DCW wrote in letter to I&B Ministry
The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has taken suo-moto cognizance of a misogynistic advertisement of a perfume brand being played repeatedly in mass media, stated the notice from DCW chairman Swati Maliwal.
“The said advertisement shows a boy and a girl, apparently a couple sitting on a bed when four more boys enter the room. One boy asks, “Shot mara lagta hai!”, the boy sitting on the bed says, “Ha mara na “. Then the first boy says “Ab hamari bari” and moves towards the girl. The girl appears to be shocked and uncomfortable on the series of events. Thereafter, the boy picks up a bottle of a body spray named ‘Shot’ and the girl looks visibly relieved as she just got saved from getting gang raped!”, said DCW.
The DCW has registered an FIR into the matter and has also sought detailed action taken report on the matter by June 9.
“I request you to kindly urgently act on the matter. These advertisements need to be taken off air without any further delay. Also, robust systems should be built to ensure certain check and balances to make sure that such filthy advertisements that promote rape culture are never played again on mass media”, wrote the DCW letter to Anurag Thakur.
“One of the ways to ensure that companies refrain from playing such dirty tactics for cheap publicity would be to impose a heavy penalty on this particular company for its anti-women advertisement. I am of the view that this step of the Government will create a strong deterrence and discourage other companies from creating similar cringe-worthy misogynistic advertisements,” added DCW.
