The ministry of Information and Broadcasting ordered a suspension of all such “controversial deodorant advertisements” and said that an inquiry is being held as per the advertising code.
New Delhi: A day after the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) wrote a letter to the Centre, the latter took action and asked YouTube and Twitter to pull down advertisements of a deodorant brand for promoting the “rape culture” and for being out and out misogynist.
The ministry of Information and Broadcasting ordered a suspension of all such “controversial deodorant advertisements” and said that an inquiry is being held as per the advertising code. The controversy was primarily sparked after a controversial advertisement of Layer’r Shot was aired and subsequently, slammed by netizens.
Meanwhile, the Advertising Standards Council of India reportedly suspended the controversial advertisements, “pending investigation”, following a social media storm over the content. The advertisements were also aired on TV channels.
DCW chief Swati Maliwal had on Friday told the media, “The deodorant advertisement blatantly promotes the rape mentality in the country. We have issued a notice to Delhi Police and asked them to file an FIR and have asked the advertisement to be immediately taken down from all platforms.”
Maliwal also tweeted, “Fuming at cringe worthy ads of the perfume ‘Shot’. They show toxic masculinity in its worst form and clearly promote gang rape culture!The company owners must be held accountable. Have issued notice to Delhi Police and written letter to I&B Minister seeking FIR and strong action.”
Meanwhile, the Information and Broadcasting ministry in its letter to YouTube and Twitter wrote, “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.”
