Advertisements are one of the biggest source of income for any media channel, be it TV or print. People get to know about the products available in markets. For brands also it is the easiest medium to reach the consumers whenever they launch a new product. There are some advertisement which catches audience eyes for the content, presentation or actors present in it. Between all of these there are advertisements which catch audience eyes due to some controversy. Reason can be some indecent content or sexually appealing content.
Here is a list of such advertisements which made a big-big name not for its publicity, but for the controversy it created:
1. Zatak Deo TV Commercial- 2010
Promoting a product is okay, but this ad showed bad side of an Indian bride. The advertisement portrayed a newly wed bride who is waiting for her husband on the wedding night. But suddenly she gets attracted to her neighbor who was spraying Zatak Deo. She looked at him seductively and removed her jewellery, and finally ended up by removing her wedding ring. Many Feminist feminist organisations reported this ad.
2. Idea TV Commercial- 2011
This ad starred Junior B, making fun of over population in India. The ad shows how due to repeated power-cuts the man in the house is disturbed while watching TV, and this ends up in making out with their wives leading to overpopulation. Idea’s 3G services would thus keep the husbands engaged after load shedding and they will be busy on their cellphones.
3. Calida Print Ad (1998)
It was ad of a Swiss lingerie brand in which Bipasha Basu and Dino Morea were seen in hot shot mode. The image portrayed Dino playfully pulling off Bipasha Basu’s underwear with his teeth. The picture created a big controversy and was finally banned after number of women’s rights organizations opposed this ad. Later on Bipasha said that it was some private moment between them that were not meant to be photographed and used.
4. Fastrack TV Commercial- 2011
Run machine Virat Kohli and actress Genelia D’Souza appeared in a Fastrack ad in which Kohli featured as a pilot and Genelia as an air hostess. It was a sequence in which Genelia tries seducing pilot Virat and is eventually successful, and both end up making love in the cockpit while the plane is still in mid-air. This ad was condemned by several Aviation companies, however the cases filed against it were not upheld.
5. Amul Macho TV Commercial- 2007
Model turned actress Sana Khan was seen in this controversial advertisement on Amul Macho. The ad featured a woman washing her husband’s underwear at a Dhobi Ghat and fantasising as if her husband is still wearing it. The music which continued in the background “yeh toh bada toing hai” was being repeated in the ad. The advertisement was later banned by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
6. Wild Stone Deo TV Commercial- 2007
This highly controversial ad of Wild Stone Deo showed a Bengali woman bumping into a man during Durga Pooja celebrations. The woman gets attracted to the man because of his deo and is turned on, eventually both of them made out on bed. This Ad was not completely banned but a censored version was aired on the television.
7. Ford Figo Print Ad- 2013
The controversy ad featured women sitting at the back end of a Figo. The goal was to promote Ford’s Figo subcompact car but it hit the headlines for the wrong reasons. The ad was created by individuals within JWT India, a unit of the world’s biggest advertising group. Later global marketing chief Jim Farley even apologized publicly at the New York International Auto Show for this.
8. Tuff Shoes Footwear Print Ad- 1995
It was the most handsome guy with his so called girlfriend. Posing nude with python wrapped around them for a print advertisement for Tuff shoes back in 1995 went so controversial that the legal proceedings lasted for 14 years, until the court declared the accused not guilty in 2009. Besides the violation under Rule 7(8) due to its suggestive nature this ad also saw animal right protesters filing another case under the Wildlife Protection Act for illegal use of the python.
9. Kamasutra Condoms TV Commercial- 1991
This Kamasutra Condoms ad featured Pooja Bedi and Marc Robinson under a shower. It was aired on back in 1991 and was banned on Doordarshan. Other media channels too refused to air the ad.
10. Lux Cozy TV Commercial- 2007
A man is running across the pool in his towel, and suddenly a dog comes and pulls his towel, by that time a woman who is the owner of the dog comes and takes her dog and stares at his crotch and thanks him by giving a peck on his cheek. The man for obvious reasons is considered lucky and the ad ends with the the tagline “apna luck pehen ke Chalo”. This ad was given clear signal by the ASCI when it was under question but the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting banned transmission or re-transmission of the ad on the grounds of being not acceptable and not to be watched in front of the family.
11. Motorola TV Commercial- 2008
This ad for the phone Motorola C550, where the phone camera is shown to capture people’s intimate moments which was again not a proper form of marketing and gave a wrong message to the audience. So the advertisement was banned to be aired in India.
12. AC Black Apple Juice Commercial- 2002
In this ad a man is seen drinking apple juice seated at a bar with a glass in his hand, he looks at a beautiful women and as sip by sip he drinks the juice, the woman’s neck line goes down and down. This ad was featured during the cricket season, and shown between the breaks, in order to increase the sales, but this ad was immediately banned and the company had to face a financial crisis.
13. Bisleri TV Commercial- 2002
In 2002, Bisleri introduced a new cap to its bottle with an extra coverage which acted as a protection seal. And Bisleri changed its tagline from “Pure and Safe” to “Play Safe”.
The advertisement featured a young couple chilling at a beach late night, where the girl seductively runs around the beach, the boy runs behind her playfully, and suddenly the girl start to breath heavily. Then the guy is seen searching for something in his pockets and bags, and finally drives off to the chemist’s store, and returned with a seal protected bottle of Bisleri. To the surprise the girl is actually thirsty and happily drinks the water. Bisleri tried to target youth of country to and convey a message for safe sex but the ad was not accepted by the Indian audience and therefore banned.
14. Mr. Coffee Instant Coffee Print Ad- 1994
Malaika and Arbaaz first met during an ad shoot for MR Coffee in 1994 and then fell in love. The ad print Whose tagline was “Real pleasure can’t come in an instant”, was not much accepted by Indian audience as it was during early 90’s.
15. Levis Jeans Print Ad- 2001
This ad print featured women who were shown extremely comfortable in their low rise jeans introduced by levis. The ad surprisingly boosted sales of men’s jeans as well. Thou the ad was not banned but the bold pose of women in this print ad created controversy.
