Celebrities team up to slam perfume ad for promoting 'rape jokes'

New Delhi: A popular perfume brand ad has faced a massive backlash from people for promoting rape and gang-rape culture. As soon as the ad went online and on national television, it made netizens furious, and it sparked nationwide outrage.

Several Bollywood celebs, including Farhan Akhtar, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Richa Chadha, Swara Bhasker, and Sona Mohapatra have also expressed their opinions on the ad.

Calling it tasteless and twisted mind, Bollywood actor Farhan Akhtar slammed the ad. The actor took to Twitter and wrote, "What incredibly tasteless and twisted minds it must take to think up, approve and create these stinking body spray gang rape innuendo ads!! Shameful."

Following this, Bollywood actress Richa Chadha asked the makers of the ad " does everyone think rape is a joke?" The actress wrote, "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!"

Global icon Priyanka Chopra also slammed the ad and called it shameful and disgusting. "Shameful and disgusting. How many levels of clearances 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 now the ministry has taken it down. Appalling," Priyanka wrote.

On the other hand, Swara Bhaskar mentioned the heinous crime which happened in Hyderabad on Friday. The actress wrote, "A teenage girl was gang-raped in Hyderabad-such incidents happen daily in India… companies like @layerr_shot choose to make TV adverts joking abt & cool-ifying' rape & gangrape. Beyond disgusting! Not just tone-deaf, but also criminal! Absolutely shameful! What agency created it?"

On Saturday, the Ministry of Information and Broadcast asked social platforms including YouTube and Twitter to take down the ad. Both the ads depict women in a 'tough spot' where they have the fear of getting sexually assaulted.