Swiggy released a statement on Wednesday addressing a widely circulated sarcastic post attributed to the company on social media. The company clarified that the ‘fake ad’ was not generated by Swiggy or any of its associates, and advised against sharing it further.
The poster in question took a satirical aim at Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal’s announcement of a dedicated fleet for orders from ‘pure veg’ restaurants. Featuring Swiggy’s logo and name, the poster depicted a scene of unrest with people rioting in the background while a landlord evicts a tenant.
The text on the poster 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.”
Snow Mountain AI co-founder and CTO Nilesh Trivedi shared the poster on X with the caption, “New Swiggy ad hits hard. /s,” clarifying later that the “/s” indicated sarcasm.
Despite the clarification, many individuals shared the poster on social media as a genuine Swiggy advertisement, prompting Trivedi to comment, “Looks like many people circulated the image while cropping out my “/s” sarcasm tag.”
In response to the viral ad, Swiggy issued a statement stating, “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.” The company emphasized that the ad was not created by them or anyone associated with Swiggy and requested people to avoid circulating or attributing it to Swiggy.
