This is one business that seems always to be in the headlines and social media trends – for some good, some not so good reasons – Zomato. And now these Zomato ads seem to have landed the food delivery company into the soup. The Zomato ads featuring Katrina Kaif and Hrithik Roshan have drawn criticism for normalising, even glorifying exploitation. Take a look:
So it’s her birthday and apparently, only the Zomato delivery guy is on time. She offers him a piece of cake but he has to scoot because otherwise his next delivery is delayed.
Here Roshan is seen going back into the house to fetch his phone for a selfie with the delivery person. But again, the delivery person has to leave without selfie --- again because he's on the clock.
Some thought that the ads are fine – that they are simply showing how committed delivery persons are to their work.
The ads are problematic for several reasons, as this tweet points out.
The ad is clearly the point of view only of the privileged customer who cares only about a meal that reaches on time. This privileged person knows little and cares even less about the terrible and often dangerous working conditions the delivery persons operate within.
What the ad does is, it tries to romanticise very difficult working conditions and presents work pressure as some form of heroism. That delivery person isn't rushing from pillar to post because of some lofty purpose in life, but simply because he will otherwise lose money or be actually penalised.
Why make the person stand outside and wait like that? This certainly smacks of the sort of discrimination we see in so many Indians homes: separate utensils for the house-help and no shoes inside the home for delivery or tradespeople. And why not offer something that may be more appreciated?
Why patronise the delivery person by calling them ‘Jadoo’? The implication here is as though it is my some magic and not their hard work because of which food reaches on time.
While it is true that a company’s ad budget and its other expenses would be separate, budgetary reallocations may not be a bad idea.
The social media pushback that greeted the advertisements meant that the food delivery app had to course correct somewhat. They issued this long-winded non-apology explanation. Among other things, they said that the aim of the ad is to encourage people to speak more respectfully to delivery people and to fork out tip money. Good so far.
But their defence is that the ads were conceptualised many months ago and shot two months ago, before the “social media chatter around gig worker payouts/working conditions”. So basically they are saying they are sorry that they got called out, not that their workers don’t have fair working conditions. And why mention company stock is doing well - like at all? Zomato also insists that their delivery personnel are fairly paid. However, they do concede that they rely on their customers to tell them how to do better – I think they have plenty of suggestions now.
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