The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has written to YouTube and microblogging site Twitter to remove a recent advertisement of a body spray brand that was slammed for promoting sexual harassment and harassment, as derogatory to women.
The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), the self-regulatory body for advertising, has also ordered the advertiser to close the advertisement on an immediate basis pending an investigation.
An ad for Layer’r Shot shows four men talking as they walk past a woman in a store. As they look at the last remaining bottle of body fragrance, discussing who should ‘take the shot’, the camera pans to the woman instead of the bottle of perfume. The ad has drawn a lot of criticism for being creepy and promoting ‘rape culture’.
“The video is injurious to depiction of women in the interest of decency or ethics and in contravention of the rules of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Code of Conduct) Rules, 2021, which inter alia provide that users shall not “Host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any information that is abusive or harassing on the basis of gender,” it said in separate emails to the two companies. As per the rules, the moderators (YouTube and Twitter) are hereby informed not to host the videos on its platform.”
The ministry pointed out that the video was also telecast on television and the ASCI found it to be in violation of the guidelines of the Cable Television Networks Rules 1994.
“The advertisement is in serious violation of the ASCI Code and is against the public interest. In a tweet on Friday, ASCI had said, “We have taken immediate action and informed the advertiser to suspend the advertisement, pending investigation.”