Zomato Takes Down Controversial ‘Kachra’ Ad, Issues Apology

Foodtech giant Zomato took down its controversial World Environment Day ad on Thursday (June 8) after facing widespread backlash from users online. 

Zomato delisted the ad campaign from all social media platforms after users, including Indian film director Neeraj Ghaywan, took to Twitter to air allegations of caste discrimination in the video. The ad was released on Environment Day on June 5 and featured actor Aditya Lakhia, better known for playing the role of ‘Kachra’ in the movie Lagaan.

The centrepiece of the ad was a play on the word Kachra (trash), drawing parallels between the name of the character in the movie and plastic waste. The ad film featured Lakhia amusingly impersonating various objects like a human jacket, lamp and hand towel to emphasise the amount of plastic used in making these objects. 

The ad film attempted to promote the recycling of plastic waste, highlighting the foodtech major’s claim of having recycled 2 Cr kg of plastic so far. The video ended with a montage exhorting people to recycle plastic and a message that said that Zomato ‘recycles twice the amount of plastic it delivers, and keeps it out of the landfills’.

Users took to Twitter and lashed out at the foodtech major. A user tweeted, “Usually, I’m a big fan of Zomato’s marketing, mostly done in-house. But their new ad film, made for World Environment Day, made for an uncomfortable watch, at least for me – your mileage may vary…”

Many even called the brand ‘beyond disgusting’ and even used the hashtag #BoycottZomato, calling for a public apology on the matter.

Under fire, Zomato issued an apology that said, “On World Environment Day, our intent was to spread awareness about the potential of plastic waste and benefits of recycling in a humorous way. Unintentionally, we may have hurt the sentiments of certain communities and individuals. We have taken down the video.”

Startups Court Controversies

This is not the first time that Zomato has landed in a soup over its marketing campaigns. Last year, an ad featuring Hrithik Roshan was taken down after many accused it of hurting religious sentiments. 

The row is emblematic of a series of public fallouts that Indian startups have seen in the past one year. In 2022, a series of cofounders and startups grabbed headlines for all the wrong reasons. BharatPe’s beleaguered managing director Ashneer Grover engaged in a public sabre-rattling with the board and executives of fintech juggernaut, taking potshots and using terse words. 

Similar was the case with Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal, who retorted with aggressive responses to any criticism on Twitter in 2022. He even termed certain media reports as being supportive of petrol-run vehicles and called them ‘petrol media’.

Then issues regarding corporate governance, plaguing startups from BYJU’S to Zomato’s acquisition of quick-commerce platform Blinkit, also gained limelight last year. Then, there were founders at beleaguered startups such as Trell and Zilingo who publicly sparred with their own investors.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.