By Online Desk
NEW DELHI: Layer’r Shot, the deodorant brand from Adjavis Venture Limited, has landed in trouble with its two new advertisements slammed by Twitter users for promoting rape culture.
The perfume and body spray advertisements were the first broadcast during the first Test match between England and New Zealand.
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 meWho are the people making these ads really? pic.twitter.com/zhXEaMqR3Q
— Permanently Exhausted Pigeon (@monikamanchanda) June 3, 2022
One of the advertisements has four men having a conversation at a deserted store. The men are debating who will take the “shot” as there are four of them and only “one shot”. As the men discuss the topic, a woman is shown in the ad. She turns back to berate them as she thinks they are conversing about her, but later realises that their talk is centred on the last remaining bottle of the Layer’r perfume.
The second advert shows a group of men entering a bedroom while a couple is there. One of them asks a crude question about the girl, implying sexual favours. The clip later reveals that he was asking about using the perfume. But that has not prevented it from drawing flak.
Meanwhile, Delhi Commission for Women took suo moto cognizance of the matter. DCW chief Swati Maliwal wrote a letter to Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur seeking action over the advertisement that purportedly promotes ‘gang rape culture’.
A notice has also been issued to the Delhi Police seeking filing of an FIR over the advertisement and its removal from mass media. The police has been asked to provide a report by June 9.
Later on the day, the I&B Ministry asked Twitter and YouTube to remove from their social media platforms the videos of the advertisement.
In letters to Twitter and YouTube, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said that the videos were “detrimental to the portrayal of women in the interest of decency and morality” and in violation of Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code).
