Advertisements can be funny, emotional, and iconic but sometimes they can be harsh enough to create controversies. Nowadays people don’t see ads as a business agenda, but they connect through them emotionally and poignantly. And where emotions are involved, sentimental damage is prone to be seen, even in the advertisement. In 2022, we witness some of the ads that created rage and anger among the audience and were listed in the list of Controversial Ads 2022.
Here are few Controversial Ads in 2022.
1. Vim Black, Dishwash for Men
Vim India came up with a campaign to promote their new product Vim Black ad was built on a sarcastic tone to pass on the message that households are not only meant for women, but men are also equally responsible for that. But viewers didn’t take it on a positive note, and they find this ad sexist and bigoted. Vim Black and Milind Soman went through a lot of backlashes after this ad was broadcasted all over the screens. People called the actor responsible for creating gender discrimination ad was built on a sarcastic tone to pass on the message that households are not only meant for women, but men are also equally responsible for that. Vim India came up with 3 ads for the same campaign Vim Black in which the theme was #BragWithSwag for all three, where you could see Vim bottled in a black bottle, that is signifying masculinity and hardship. The idea of keeping the Vim bottle Black is to signify it for men and call it the first dishwasher to be used by men.
After so much of drama and chaos. Vim India came up with a revelation that they aren’t launching any men’s dishwasher, but it was just a satiric ad to spread awareness in society that men are equally responsible for doing household as a duty instead of ignoring or bragging about them.
2. AU Small Finance Bank
Traditions have a root connection with emotions and whenever any alteration happens to tradition, it always sparks fire and controversies. Something same happened with the AU Small Finance Bank campaign. The Ad features Kiara Advani and Aamir Khan where we can see Aamir Khan changing the tradition and coming to the bride’s house as a Resident son-in-law. The controversy is created when ads show the groom taking the first step at the bride’s house opposite to the traditional ritual. Altering old-age Hindu tradition ignited anger among people and this ad soon came under the controversial ads list. many celebrities like Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri stand upfront to protest against AU bank and Aamir Khan to apologize to people for hurting Hindu sentiments.
I just fail to understand since when Banks have become responsible for changing social & religious traditions? I think @aubankindia should do activism by changing corrupt banking system.
— Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) October 10, 2022
Aisi bakwaas karte hain fir kehte hain Hindus are trolling. Idiots.https://t.co/cJsNFgchiY
3. Shot deo, 4 men and one woman
Sometimes ads can go too extra that they pull off the track from the message they are meant to spread. Deo company LAYER’R Shot came with an ad that showed 4 men talking something provoking about a female. As soon as this ad went on air, it provoked everyone, and people find this ad encouraged rape mentality. A case was filed against Layer’r shot after which this ad was soon pulled down, followed up by a letter from Delhi Women’s Commission. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry pass an order where they ensure that no such derogatory advertisements will be allowed to go on air, ANI reported. This ad came under “promoting rape/gang rape culture” in the country and spreading an extremely wrong message to youth.
(Layer’r Shot) Deodorant advertisement blatantly promotes the rape mentality in the country. We’ve issued notice to Delhi Police that FIR must be registered & ad must be immediately taken down from all platforms: Swati Maliwal, Chairperson, Delhi Commission for Women pic.twitter.com/A200SZ9kGu
— ANI (@ANI) June 4, 2022
4. Zomato, Mahakal Thali
Zomato came up with a campaign “Mann Kiya, Zomato Kiya” with Bollywood Hritik Roshan. In this campaign, Zomato used to promote area/state-specific restaurants through AI. Hritik Roshan was part of this campaign where he is seen saying the dialogue, “Mann Kiya, toh Ujjain Mahakal se Manga liya” (Mahakal is also referred to as Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain). Using the word ‘Mahakal” offended some of the people and they misunderstood this word in the reference to Mahakaleshwar Temple. Priests of Mahakal temple brought this to notice and filed a complaint to the state govt. This ad was pulled down and re-released by editing that verse of the dialogue. Later, Zomato came up with the explanation that it wasn’t meant to hurt anyone’s sentiments and Mahakal was referred to as thali, not the temple.
5. Rishabh Pant and career
Whether it’s love life or professional life, Rishabh Pant is always in the headlines. This time, Rishabh Pant is in the news because of one of the endorsements with Dream 11. In the ad for dream 11, Rishabh Pant is seen saying, I’m glad I choose to be a cricketer and then he mocks singers through a spoof video of a failed singer. This mockery was not accepted by everyone, especially Vocalist Kaushiki Chakraborty. Chakraborty didn’t like how Rishabh mocked singers and their occupations, but she does appreciate Rishabh’s call of apologizing to people whose sentiments were hurt and deleted the video as well.
I want to thank @RishabhPant17 for deleting the Ad from his twitter account n also mention that I personally have nothing against him. I wish him all the best in life n also request him to help us get to the right authorities so that we can take the ad down from other platforms🙏
— Kaushiki (@Singer_kaushiki) December 11, 2022
6. Amul, where do women belongs ?
Amul recently released its new ad which ignited controversy as soon as it went viral. What is the reason behind that? This new Amul ad shows women in the kitchen serving the family. This wasn’t acceptable to people, and they slammed Amul for having such a gender stereotype mindset. Many viewers came front with disappointment, and they asked Amul to stop promoting the “women belong to the kitchen” attitude in this 21st century, 2022. Some Viewers said “Taste badlo, soch badlo Amul”. ASCI generated a Guideline “Harmful Gender Stereotypes should not be included”, in Favour of women’s welfare community and social welfare.
Women cook, men eat. When @Amul_Coop is not splurging on peddling hate in toxic TV studios, it comes up with cringe-fests like this.
— anuradha sharma (@NuraRadha) September 14, 2022
Taste badlo, soch badlo, Amul. https://t.co/GV8JB9ssY8
Controversies and ads have a relationship like Coke and soda when shaking a lot, it might leak out of the bottle (controversy) but without it, coke (ad) will be tasteless with zero hits and spark. Sometimes controversies can be genuine and in the right direction but sometimes they can be exaggerated and baseless. Baseless controversies are also responsible for killing creativity and experiments. Do you also think that controversies created through ads are mostly baseless or they are genuine? Let us know in the comment section below.
