NEW DELHI: After outrage over the online advertisement of a body spray ‘promoting sexual violence against women, the Union ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Saturday asked to Twitter and YouTube to immediately pull down the commercial. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), a self-regulatory body of advertisement professionals, has also notified the advertiser to suspend the commercial on an immediate basis.
In letters to Twitter and YouTube, the ministry said the videos were “detrimental to the portrayal of women in the interest of decency and morality” and in violation of Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code).
The videos of the perfume brand sparked protest among a large section of social media users, who pointed out that the advertisement, not-so surreptitiously, sought to promote sexual violence against women. “It has come to the notice of the ministry that an inappropriate and derogatory advertisement of a deodorant is circulating on social media, so it has asked Twitter and YouTube to immediately pull down all instances of this advertisement,” said an official.