Ola pulled down the YouTube ad after it created an outrage on social media.
Highlights
- Ad features couple out shopping, man paying for items woman selects
- Man turns to camera and says 'my girlfriend costs Rs. 525 per km'
- Ola apologises in a tweet and takes down the ad
Taxi aggregator Ola has pulled down an ad from its official YouTube channel after an outrage over it on social media.
The ad titled "Micro Stories: Too expensive to take GF out on a date?" was released earlier this week.
The ad features a man walking through a market with his girlfriend, being forced to stop at every shop, as the woman selects things for him to buy for her.
It ends with the boy turning to the camera and saying "
Meri girlfriend chalti hai Rs 525 per km, but Ola Micro chalti hai sirf Rs 6 per km," (It costs me Rs 525 per km when my girlfriend walks but Ola Micro runs at just Rs 6 per km).
While most Twitter users slammed Ola for what they called "sexist portrayal of women", some of them said the ad shouldn't have been pulled down. Below are some of the tweets:After the outrage, Ola tweeted, "We understand one of our TVCs has ended up hurting some sentiments. We've pulled it down. However, #OlaMicro continues to run at Rs.6/km."