Zomato Withdraws Offensive Outdoor Ad

Zomato, one of India’s largest restaurant discovery and food delivery platform, faced a lot of heat this week due to an outdoor advertisement. Zomato is known for its quirky and witty puns based on pop culture such as “Acche din are finally here,” “Bol Baby Bol, Malai Tikka Roll,” “Mera pizza ghar aaya o Ram ji,” and “Oonchi hai building? Lift teri band hai?” However, this time around, the food tech startup seems to have crossed a line.

The recently published advertisement depicted the letters BC., and MC., (mac and cheese and butter chicken) written against a bright red background. But, the letters are also known as short expletives in the Hindi language. The advertisement went viral on social media with people calling the advertisement cheap, sexist and crass while some found it extremely hilarious.

The marketing head of Zomato Pramod Rao apologized for the banner and is now working on removing it from the streets. The ad was deployed in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata, among other cities. Zomato’s co founder Pankaj Chaddah also tweeted an apology mentioning it was never their intention to offend people.

Zomato’s Creative Director Akshar Pathak also tweeted saying the company was already looking for ways to replace the creative.

This is not the first time the company faced backlash over advertisements. In 2015, Zomato boasted about an increase in late night orders after conducting an advertisement campaign on obscene websites. While the strategy seemed to work, the company had to pull the plug on the campaign and issue a public apology.