Durex India, had a major foot-in-the-mouth (metaphorically, of course) moment recently. In its eagerness to cash in on the craze and excitement for Netflix’s Sex Education in India, Durex put out a digital advertisement that caused major embarrassment for the leading condom brand in India. The digital advertisement was put out as a promoted tweet by Durex, but it faced so much flak and criticism online that the brand had to finally pull down its tweet.
Durex is one of the leading brands that has its topical advertising strategy pretty much on point. But this time, the coin dropped on the wrong side for the company. Durex India put out a tweet with a Sex Education-themed creative. The creative featured a bus and a bus stop, with body copy that said, “It’s just a stupid bus”, and then, “But it’s one memorable ride” below it.
The reference, as is obvious to any Sex Education fan, is to the incident with Aimee in Sex Education Season 2, when she is sexually assaulted on the bus by a pervert. The brand apparently wanted to reference the later part of the incident when Maeve, Vivienne, Olivia and Lilly get on the bus with Aimee to help her overcome the trauma of the incident. However, the reference did not come across the way the Durex India digital marketing team envisioned. Instead, it appears to trivialise the heinous act of sexual assault; the “memorable ride” phrase compounds the problem further.
Obviously, netizens did not take too kindly to the reference, and flooded the tweet with criticism, calling it insensitive, tone-deaf, in bad taste, and what not.
The result is that Durex has now taken down the tweet. However, the digital ad can still be seen in the hundreds of tweets that have roundly criticised the creative.
Have a look at a few –
Even more distasteful is the explanation that the Durex India digital marketing team have given for the obnoxious creative. Have a look –
This digital ad from Durex India is really surprising, given that the brand has always raised the bar with its creative and innovative advertising. It’s also indicative of the fact that the current generation will not accept any crap in the name of topical advertising, and certainly not one that trivialises sexual assault.