Zomato withdraws “Kachra” campaign after being called out by netizens

Zomato is facing backlash after releasing a promotional advertisement “Kachra can change the game” on occasion of the World Environment Day. Kachra translates into waste and/or trash in Hindi. Zomato was attempting to show what the brand has been doing to challenge climate change. But it ended up facing tremendous backlash across social media for appropriating casteism. This calls into question if brands can go to any extent to greenwash.

The ad’s “main” character is Kachra, which has references to the critically acclaimed Bollywood film Lagaan. Aditya Lakhia who is depicted as a member of an oppressed and marginalized ‘untouchable’ community personifies Kachra. Lakhia is shown to be recycled kachra in the ad — playing the role of a towel (where one can blow their nose into), a table, a flower pot, among others. This triggered many people as a result of which Zomato deleted the ad and posted the following message.

"On World Environment Day, our intent was to spread awareness about the potential of plastic waste and benefits of recycling in a humorous way. Unintentionally, we may have hurt the sentiments of certain communities and individuals. We have taken down the video," the company said on Twitter.

The ad campaign was criticised for being tone deaf towards marginalised castes. It also attracted flak from National film award winner film director Neeraj Ghaywan who called the Zomato ad "repulisve and casteist".

Let’s take a look at some of the criticism that Zomato faced on Twitter.

#Kachra from #Lagaan was one of the most dehumanised voiceless depictions of Dalits ever in cinema. @zomato has used the same character and made a repulsive #casteist commercial. A human stool? Are you serious? Extremely insensitive! https://t.co/xWUpDatUvD

— Neeraj Ghaywan (@ghaywan) June 8, 2023

Communications strategy consultant Karthik Srinivasan also posted a tweet on the controversial topic.

Usually, I'm a big fan of Zomato's marketing, mostly done in-house. But their new ad film, made for World Environment Day, made for an uncomfortable watch, at least for me - your mileage may vary.
I understand the intent: to use the 'Kachra' character from Lagaan for his name 1/5 pic.twitter.com/WmoYYS4grg

— Karthik 🇮🇳 (@beastoftraal) June 6, 2023

Then another netizen whose Twitter handle is @_ambedkarite posted the following.

There is difference between hurting sentiments and demeaning a community. It’s better to hire more people from marginalised community. https://t.co/0nHEvnyO3R

— Harsh (@_ambedkarite) June 8, 2023

Aditya Mani Jha, a freelance journalist also put forward his views in a tweet.

The fact that not *one* Zomato employee at any level of seniority thought that a Dalit character called 'Kachra' (rubbish) is insensitive/bigoted ..... really speaks volumes about the caste composition of major Indian corporations (esp startups). https://t.co/CnVnxbJLW0

— Aditya Mani Jha (@aditya_mani_jha) June 8, 2023