Body spray brand apologises for controversial ads after online outrage

Body spray brand Layer'r Shot has apologised for its two controversial ad campaigns, which had last week triggered outrage over social media and other media platforms for "promoting gang rape culture".

However, Layer'r Shot, owned by Gujarat-based Adjavis Venture, said the two advertisements were aired "only after due and mandatory approvals".

"... we never intended to hurt anyone's sentiments or feelings or outrage any women's modesty or promote any sort of culture, as wrongly perceived by some," Layer'r Shot said in an instagram post on Monday.

It further added: "However, we sincerely apologise for the advertisements that consequentially caused rage amongst individuals & several communities and beg their pardon."

Layer'r Shot claimed that it had "voluntarily" informed all its media partners to stop the telecast/broadcasting of both the advertisements from June 4 with immediate effect.

The statement comes two days after the Information & Broadcasting (I&B) ministry had on Saturday asked Twitter and YouTube to remove from their social media platforms the videos of advertisements of Layer'r Shot, as it triggered outrage for "promoting sexual violence against women".

In letters to Twitter and YouTube, the (I&B) ministry had said that the videos were "detrimental to the portrayal of women in the interest of decency and morality" and in violation of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code).

The videos of the perfume brand sparked outrage among a large section of social media users who complained the advertisement sought to promote sexual violence against women.

Advertising sector regulator ASCI had also directed to suspend the controversial ads of the body spray brand, saying that it "was potentially in serious violation" of its code against offensive advertising.

After seeing the ad campaign, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) immediately invoked a special process called "Suspended Pending Investigation" (SPI) and asked the advertiser to file a response over it.

"The said ad is in potential violation of ASCI's chapter II, which states that advertisements should contain nothing indecent, vulgar, especially in the depiction of women, or nothing repulsive which is likely, in the light of generally prevailing standards of decency and propriety, to cause grave and widespread offence," said a statement from ASCI issued on Saturday.