The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has written to YouTube and Twitter to ask them to remove a recent advertising for a body spray brand that has been criticised for being rude to women and for encouraging sexual assault and harassment.
The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), India’s self-regulatory organisation for advertising, has also asked the advertiser to take the advertisement off the air immediately until an investigation is conducted. In the Layer’r Shot commercial, four men are conversing in a store as a woman enters.
The camera moves to the woman instead of the perfume bottle as they dispute who should take a’shot’ at the final remaining bottle of body scent. The ad has received a lot of backlash for being creepy and encouraging ‘rape culture.’
The video is harmful to the portrayal of women in the interest of decency or morality, and it is in violation of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which states, “Users shall not host, display, upload, modify,
publish, transmit, store, update, or share any information that is insulting or harassing on the basis of gender,” according to separate emails from the ministry to the two companies. . “In light of the foregoing and in compliance with the rules,” the email said, “the intermediary (YouTube and Twitter) is hereby notified to not host the video on its platform.”
The film was also broadcast on television, according to the ministry, and the ASCI judged it to be in breach of the Cable Television Network Rules 1994.
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry urged YouTube and Twitter on Saturday to remove footage of a disparaging deodorant advertising from its sites, claiming that it was harmful to women’s depiction.
The Ministry sent out emails to both social media networks, alerting them to the video that was posted on Friday. It garnered nearly a million views on YouTube and was also making the rounds on Twitter.
“In breach of Rule 3(1)(b), the above-mentioned video is harmful to the portrayal of women in the interest of decency or morality” (ii) Users shall not host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update, or share any information that is insulting or harassing on the basis of gender, according to the Information Technology .
(Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which provides, among other things, that users shall not host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update, or share any information that is insulting or harassing on the basis of gender,” according to the Ministry.
The advertising was also broadcast on television, causing the Advertising Standards Council of India to order the advertiser to immediately stop airing it.
The double entendre ‘Layer’r Shot’ advertising sparked fury on Twitter, with several users requesting that it be taken down. As a woman walked by, four men were arguing who would use the last remaining deodorant bottle.
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