Priyanka Chopra Jonas expresses disgust over body spray ad, calls it ‘Appalling’

Expressing anger over a deodorant advertisement, global star Priyanka Chopra slammed the makers of the ad. The offensive body spray ad has been alleged to promote rape culture and since then has drawn flak on social media. 

Priyanka took to her Twitter account and wrote, "Shameful and disgusting. How many levels of clearance did it take for this commercial to be green lit. How many people thought this was ok? I`m so glad that it was called out and the ministry has taken it down. Appalling!."

Several Bollywood celebrities took to their social media accounts and spoke about how disgusting the advertisement was. 

Filmmaker-writer-actor Farhan Akhtar also slammed the advertisement and called it "shameful". "What incredibly tasteless and twisted minds it must take to think up, approve and create these stinking body spray `gang rape` innuendo ads..!! Shameful," he tweeted.

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Earlier, actor Richa Chadha tweeted, saying: "This ad is not an accident. To make an ad, a brand goes through several layers of decision making. Creatives, script, agency, client, casting...DOES EVERYONE THINK RAPE IS A JOKE? Revelatory! This brand, the agency that made this ad need to be sued for the filth they`re serving."

Actor Hrithik Roshan and singer Sona Mohapatra too expressed their shock over the ad's being given the green signal for release. Hrithik also praised viewers for calling out the ad.  "Theme – Gang-rape. Gagging after I saw it here on my Twitter timeline & wondering if giving them additional publicity is worse," wrote Sona. 

The advertisement for the perfume brand shows four men in a store, standing behind a woman, and then they are heard saying, "there are four of us, but there's only one who will get a shot". Further, the ad shows the visibly shocked woman turning to them uncomfortably when one of them goes to grab a single bottle of ‘Shot’ perfume kept on a rack. In another advertisement, a couple is seen sharing some private moments in a room when four men enter the room and say they want a ‘shot’. The girl in the ad is seen alarmed. The four men then say that they want the body spray. 

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After the outrage, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting ordered the suspension of the controversial perfume ads. Within hours of coming to the notice, the I & B ministry came into action and suspended the advertisement. An inquiry has been made as per the advertising code. 

In a statement, the I & B ministry said: "The above-mentioned videos are detrimental to the portrayal of women in the interest of decency or morality, and in violation of rule 3(1)(b)(ii) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which inter-alia provides that the users shall not host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any information which is insulting or harassing on the basis of gender."