Zomato Responds after Katrina, Hrithik’s ads landed in controversy

Zomato, one of the most well known food delivery platforms is no stranger to controversies. In fact, its latest ad campaign, featuring Katrina Kaif and Hrithik Roshan has become a topic of controversy.

The people have been pissed at the campaign as they didn’t like the concept. People felt that Zomato can spend a heavy amount to bring in stars for ads but don’t have enough to pay wages to their delivery staff. They also felt how the company officials just ignore the fact that delivery personnel are overworked despite of all the hard circumstances at their end.

In the advertisements titled, ‘Har Customer Hai Star’, Hrithik and Katrina were seen as appreciating the efforts of the delivery guys who delivered their food on time despite the rains or any other situation. To express their gratitude, Hrithik can be seen as offering a selfie to the delivery man, while in Katrina’s ad, she is thanking him by offering a cake. But, in both the advertisements, the delivery man leaves as he has to deliver the food to another customer.

After being trolled for these ads, Zomato made its intentions clear to the viewers. It shared a long post on Twitter defending their stand. Here’s what they said;

Zomato released the new tv ads, featuring Katrina Kaif and Hrithik Roshan, a week ago. They have been getting mixed feedbacks about the ad. According to some people, they have hired celebrities to divert the conversation from worker salaries and their working conditions.

Their delivery partners don’t even get a minute to themselves and remain under extreme pressure of the orders, be it rain or shine. They would rather spend $$ on celebrity ads than pay their delivery partners a god amount.

In response to this, the company officials said that there are always two sides to a story and they would like to present their view point. These ads were invented six months ago, before any social media gig around worker payouts and their working conditions. The ad was shot two months ago and had the following goal:

– Make delivery partners the hero of the ad highlight and talk respectfully to them (like Hrithik and Katrina did in the ad).

– Raise the level of dignity associated with the job of these people.

– Showcase the pride with which most of their delivery partners serve the customers with.

– And lastly, reiterate that every customer is a star for them and no less than Hrithik or Katrina.

According to them, their ads were well- intentioned, but unfortunately, people have misunderstood them. Apart from this, they mentioned that they have been working on this and their delivery partner Net Promoter Score (NPS) has increased from -10% to 28% and continues to rise.

They have been grateful to everyone for pushing them to do better and they won’t shirk away from their responsibility.

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