Advertisements always look for snappy and topical motifs although at times it can land them in trouble. Appliances firm Kent RO Systems is the recent one to this list. The Noida-based healthcare products company, known for its water purifiers, now face a lot of criticism on social media after its latest ad for a dough maker device that urged the people to prevent their maids from kneading the dough as their hands 'may be infected'.
Ad on dough maker kindles controversy
The firm had to quickly pull down the ad as it kindled wide outrage over the 'discriminatory', 'sexist', and 'classicist' ad. They also marked their apology for the same.
In its controversial ad on the dough maker, Kent wrote, "Are you allowing your maid to knead atta dough by hand? Choose KENT Atta & Bread Maker for hands-free kneading of dough. Let automation take care of hygiene this time!" "Don't compromise on health and Purity," it added.
Kent writes apology
Although the ad posted in Instagram was quickly removed on noting its consequences; screenshots of the campaign was widely shared and condemned on other social media platforms, particularly in Twitter where most of the users shared the post on demanding a boycott of the company for conveying such biased statements in a time of the pandemic scenario.
Most of the prominent figures including Swara Bhasker spoke against the detrimental content in the ad campaign. "Shameful and shockingly insensitive, classist and discriminatory copy @KentROSystems. Deeply disappointing that a reputed company like yours should endorse such horrible regressive blatantly anti poor thinking! Which agency has written this trash????? Pls take down this ad!" wrote the annoyed actress on her Twitter page.
The company soon issued their apology on Twitter. In its official statement, Mahesh Gupta, Chairman of Kent RO Systems wrote, "Our recent advertisement of Kent Atta & Bread Maker on social media was unintentional, badly communicated and was wrong. And therefore, it was immediately withdrawn. We are extremely sorry for this incident and want to apologise to everyone, especially to the people whose sentiments were hurt."
"The advertisement is contrary to the beliefs and professional standards of Kent. We will investigate how our advertisement standards were compromised and we will further take corrective and preventive action so that such incidents are not repeated in future," it further added.
Moreover, many tagged actress Hema Malini to stop endorsing the brand and step off from being its brand ambassador.
