Swiggy Issues Statement Regarding Viral Post Criticising Zomato, Denies Involvement
Swiggy has distanced itself from an advertisement that took a dig at its competitor, Zomato. The food delivery and ordering platform took to X (formerly known as Twitter) and said, “If it isn’t already obvious, this isn’t an ad by Swiggy.”
The plafrom further said, “It was neither created by us nor by anybody affiliated with Swiggy. Kindly refrain from circulating or attributing it to Swiggy.”
So, what is this controversial ad?
The ad shared by neitizen Nilesh Trivedi (as mentioned on X) has the Swiggy logo and says, “Eviction-safe food delivery. In Indian neighborhoods, 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 possible mob lynchings.”
This viral post is in response to Zomato’s recent withdrawn campaign, where the food giant said that it would have a pure vegetarian mode. Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal even said that its riders will wear green uniforms as part of the initiative.
However, the entire campaign drew lots of responses and debates. Eventually, Goyal took to X (formerly Twitter) and said, “While we are going to continue to have a fleet for vegetarians, we have decided to remove the on-ground segregation of this fleet on the ground using the color green. All our riders—both our regular fleet and our fleet for vegetarians—will wear the color red.”
Legal Actions:
The alleged fake ad has more than 9K likes and more than 1,7K retweets. As the line between fake and real diminishes on social media, many neitizens assumed that the ad was fake and asked for an authentic source before Swiggy’s clarification. Some users, such as Kiran, said they would uninstall Swiggy.
Amid the ongoing criticism, Nilesh wrote on X that the ad was sarcastic. He wrote, “This image is not an authentic ad by Swiggy. It is sarcasm, satire, or 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 is still widely misunderstood. My mistake.”
Meanwhile, many users have asked to take legal action against the advertisement.
