'Problematic & Disgusting': Govt Road Safety Campaign Ad Slammed for 'Promoting Dowry'

An ad about road safety took a controversial turn on Twitter for allegedly ‘promoting dowry’. The campaign ad features Bollywood star Akshay Kumar and was shared by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Twitter.

The Union Minister soon faced flak over the ad and was accused of ‘promoting the practice of dowry’ by opposition leaders and twitter users. Gadkari shared the video with the caption – Save lives by driving cars with six air bags.

In the ad, a family is seen bidding farewell to a bride at her ‘Bidai’ and Akshay Kumar, starring as a policeman, speaks to the father of the bride and accuses him of sending his daughter away in a car that was unsafe because it had only two airbags.

The ad further shows how the father makes the decision of then sending his daughter off in another car, but this time with six airbags.

The ad was termed problematic by Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi who shared the clip on twitter and wrote – “This is such a problematic advertisement. Who passes such creatives? Is the government spending money to promote the safety aspect of a car or promoting the evil& criminal act of dowry through this ad?”

Saket Gokhale, National Spokesperson of All India Trinamool Congress also tweeted – “Disgusting to see Indian govt officially promoting dowry. What even???”

Some other Twitter users called for the ad to be withdrawn while several others slammed the ad for trying to deflect responsibility by making customers pay extra for air bags instead of fixing roads and other infrastructure issues.

The road safety campaign comes as an aftermath of the accident that claimed the life of Businessman Cyrus Mistry who died enroute Mumbai when the car he was travelling rammed the divider. Mistry was allegedly not wearing a seat belt because of which the air bags in the back seat did not open, leading to his death.

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