Swiggy issued a clarification on Wednesday regarding a sarcastic post that had gone viral on social media under the food delivery company’s name. The company stated that the ‘fake ad’ was not created by them or anyone associated with them and urged people to avoid sharing it.
The ad in question was a poster mocking Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal’s announcement about a dedicated fleet for ‘pure veg’ restaurants. The poster, featuring the Swiggy logo, depicted a scene with people rioting in the background while a landlord evicts a tenant.
The poster’s text read, “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.”
Nilesh Trivedi, Snow Mountain AI co-founder and CTO, initially shared the poster on X with a “/s” tag for sarcasm, indicating that it was not a serious ad. However, some individuals circulated the image without the “/s” tag, leading to confusion.
Swiggy clarified, “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.”
Zomato’s initial plan to cater exclusively to customers avoiding restaurants serving meat faced criticism online, prompting CEO Deepinder Goyal to revise the plans for the safety of both riders and customers.
