Days after food aggregator Zomato launched a pure veg fleet to serve its pure veg customers and received online backlash from wokes and liberals for the same. Meanwhile, an ‘advertisement’ attributed to Swiggy taking a swipe at Zomato surfaced on social media.
On the 20th of March, several X users shared an alleged Swiggy ad titled: “Eviction-Safe Food Delivery”, which depicts a food delivery man at a customer’s door with an order, while in the background, a few men appear to be following another delivery person wearing a green t-shirt with sticks in their hands.
The text in the ‘advertisement’ read, “Eviction-safe food delivery. In Indian neighbourhoods, your dietary preferences are best kept private. Our delivery fleet doesn’t leak your private habits to the world. You also save some money as we don’t have to pay for the life insurance of our delivery staff against mob lynchings.”
An online troll Salil Tripathi shared the said ‘ad’ and wrote, “Well played @Swiggy!”
Another online user wrote, “New swiggy ad amid the Zomato PURE veg issue.”
New swiggy ad amid the Zomato PURE veg issue. pic.twitter.com/tP7cGitdiw
— Blue Sattai Maran (@tamiltalkies) March 20, 2024
As this advertisement attributed to Swiggy went viral online, the food aggregator issued a statement and said, “We came across a fake ad this morning regarding a recent controversy. If it isn’t already obvious, this is NOT an ad by Swiggy. It was neither created by us nor anybody affiliated with Swiggy. Kindly refrain from circulating or attributing it to Swiggy.”
— Swiggy (@Swiggy) March 20, 2024
Notably, this fake advertisement featuring an AI-generated image was created by an X user and a “Swiggy fan” Nilesh whose X post read, “New #Swiggy ad hits hard.” Although Nilesh added “/s” meaning sarcasm, the fake ad went viral as “real”.
New #swiggy ad hits hard.
— Nilesh (@nileshtrivedi) March 20, 2024
/s pic.twitter.com/BBSkASiHui
In an additional post, Nilesh clarified that it was a sarcastic post and said that he added sufficient clues. “This image is not an authentic ad by Swiggy. It is sarcasm/satire/parody. I thought I had dropped sufficient clues: – “/s” – Snarky language – Bad graphic design – AI-generated art – Corporations taking a stand with an apparent spine But it seems like this was still widely misunderstood. My mistake.”
This image is not an authentic ad by Swiggy. It is sarcasm/satire/parody. I thought I had dropped sufficient clues:
— Nilesh (@nileshtrivedi) March 20, 2024
– "/s"
– Snarky language
– Bad graphic design
– AI-generated art
– Corporations taking a stand with an apparent spine
But it seems like this was still widely…
Notably, on the 19th of March, Zomato’s CEO Deepinder Goyal announced that Zomato has brought a new service ‘Pure Veg Mode’ to serve its pure veg customers.
Despite Zomato explicitly mentioning that “anyone who prefers pure veg food can avail the service and this Pure Veg Mode, or the Pure Veg Fleet doesn’t serve or alienate any religious, or political preference”, the online woke/liberal mob launched a scathing attack on Zomato and its CEO.
