The Information and Broadcasting Ministry on Saturday asked YouTube and Twitter to take down from their platforms the videos of a derogatory advertisement of a deodorant, stating that it was detrimental to the portrayal of women.
The Ministry sent emails to both the social media platforms, drawing their attention to the video uploaded on Friday. It had registered close to a million views on YouTube and was also being circulated on Twitter.
“The above mentioned video is detrimental to the portrayal of women in the interest of decency or morality, and in violation of the rule 3(1)(b)(ii) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which inter-alia provides that the users shall not host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any information which is insulting or harassing on the basis of gender,” said the Ministry.
The advertisement had also been broadcast on TV, prompting the Advertising Standards Council of India to direct the advertiser to suspend the advertisement immediately.
The double entendre 'Layer'r Shot' advertisement triggered an outrage on Twitter, with a large number of users demanding action against it. It showed four men discussing who among them would use the last remaining deodorant bottle, as a woman passed by.
The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) wrote to the I&B Minister Anurag Thakur seeking an action against the deodorant brand for “misogynistic advertisement” that promoted “gang-rape culture”. The Commission also issued a notice to the Delhi Police to register a First Information Report and get the content removed from mass media platforms.
DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal, in the letter, said the advertisement was offensive to women and promoted violence against women and girls. She asked for a robust system that kept a check on such advertisements.
The commission has also demanded a heavy penalty on the deodorant brand so that other companies refrained from playing such “dirty tactics for cheap publicity”. It has asked for an action taken report from the Delhi Police by June 9.
“Are you making perfume ads or promoting gang-rape mentality? What level of inferiority is being sold by hiding it under the guise of creativity,” the chairperson Ms. Maliwal tweeted.
