"Downright Terrible": Bombay Shaving Co's Newspaper Ad Garner Huge Criticism For Mentioning Prachi Nigam (image@GabbarSingh)Prachi Nigam from Uttar Pradesh caught everyone’s attention after she scored 98.5 percent in her 10th Board exam. However, instead of being appreciated, the young girl was mocked and trolled for her facial hair. The situation shed light on the prevailing mindset of the society where appearance often overshadow the genuine achievements.
Taking the situation to another level, a brand decided to further worsen the situation by taking the teenager’s name in an ad. Though the brand intended to show solidarity with the student while subtly promoting their brand, the move garnered wide criticism on social media platform. The ad appeared to exploit the situation for its own merit.
When an X (formerly twitter) user Gabbar Singh shared an image of a newspaper as of Bombay Shaving Company Bombae, the comment section was filled with only one message that the brand went overboard with the ad. It read, “Dear Prachi, they are trolling your hair today, they’ll applaud your A.I.R. tomorrow”. It was further added that, “we hope you never get bullied into using your razor”. The lines appeared to be mocking Prachi than supporting her. The user added that “the kid would want this episode to end as soon as possible. But No! a brand wants to splash her name again. Without her consent. To sell their own razors”.
Bombay Shaving Company does a full page ad for Prachi, The UP board topper, who was being trolled for facial hair.
Haven’t seen something this desperate.
This message goes to their own TG, not to the people who bullied her, hey pls remember to buy our razors while you shed a… pic.twitter.com/YWBDwgd6LU
— Gabbar (@GabbbarSingh) April 27, 2024
To make the situation even worse, the CEO of the company shared the ad and said that it was “love my team ooze class”. He further added that there is “no opportunistic sale, QR code, nothing. Just a heartfelt message to a fellow Bae”.
What has happened to founders. This is such a low class advertising from @BombayShavingCo & then the founder has the audacity to say it is oozing class. This is what happens when your main job is creating self patronising videos on YT, all you can then think of is growing clicks. pic.twitter.com/DJKlrzyP1r
— Aayur Kaul (@aayurkaul) April 27, 2024
One of the social media user said that the brand is “literally trolling her on a national level”. The user called out the CEO’s “audacity to mention that this is not for sale. It’s literally a print ad. On the front page of a newspaper! Of course you’re using it as a ploy to sell your product.”.
Another user called it pathetic for “making fun while trying to sound supportive”. Another user called it “downright terrible. Teens making jokes on the net is nothing compared to a bunch of grown a** people conceptualising ad at both brand n agency level n taking the joke further”.
Prachi herself has not addressed the advertisement yet. She has previously responded to the huge trolling she faced due to her facial hair. She said, trolls can live with their mindset, “I am happy that my success is now my identity. My family, my teachers, my friends never criticised me for my appearance and I never bothered about it either. It was only when my photograph was published after the results that people started trolling me and then my attention was drawn to the problem”, as quoted by media.