Marketing plays a key role in the promotion and sale of a product or service. And while we often see brands working out their promotion plans with both creativity and depth, some others just slide into the controversial territory. Just like films, these advertisements flashing on our phones and television screens are often meant to attract their target audience towards the product, but sometimes the approach used to do so can be bit problematic. And this is exactly what happened with this restaurant in Karachi, Pakistan.
According to the latest updates on the restaurant’s official Instagram handle, the food label drew the internet’s attention for all the wrong reasons. Declaring an offer, that is only valid for men (first of all, why at all?), the restaurant’s marketing team picked a scene from Alia Bhatt’s latest release–Gangubai Kathiawadi.
Drawing on the vague similarity between the discount and this particular event in the movie (which only the restaurant thought about), it curated a distasteful advertisement. The scene we are refereeing to here features Alia Bhatt’s character–Gangu, who is sold by her lover to a brothel followed by which she is asked to stand at the door, in order to welcome her first client using a specific gesture. Picking the exact clip to advertise a 25% discount for men, the restaurant named–Swing, uses one of Alia’s dialogues from the same film–”Aja na Raja – what are you waiting for?” as its tagline.
Soon after the restaurant dropped its latest ad, internet pariwaar came running to school the owners for mocking a sensitive scene. While one user wrote, “You guys are using such a painful scene for your advertisement???” some other accounts lashed out and said, “You really need to look into what’s being put up here. To use a painful scene to justify whatever you’re offering is reeking of misogyny and ignorance. Do better!”
While the distasteful marketing strategy was not enough, the restaurant dropped a message to defend itself. According to the latest post on it’s official Instagram handle, the latest image showcases a snapshot of the advertisement, featuring Alia Bhatt’s character Gangubai. The pictures are accompanied by a caption–The movie and this post is based on a concept. Like before, we’re open to all and will be serving you with the same love like we always have,” it said using another tagline ‘Movie kare tou aag, restaurant kare tou paap?‘
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I mean seriously you guys? Many of the restaurant’s loyal customers also lashed out at its comments and said, “Please improve your sense of humour.” What is deeply problematic about this marketing strategy is the way it sheds light on a woman’s pain and sprinkles its misogynist take on it. Dear Swing, we really think you must check with your marketing team once, this is not how it’s done.
Image Credits: Instagram
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