#BoycottSwiggy and #BoycottBharatMatrimony: Why are these brands facing the flak online?

Spreading the tenacity of the boycott culture, Swiggy and Bharat Matrimony are the latest victims of the boycott brigade

Hyderabad: The trend of boycotting Bollywood movies, at least on Twitter, is very much alive. Each week there is a new film that somehow ‘is derogatory and hurts the sentiments of …’, and is immediately trashed.

Spreading the tenacity of the boycott culture onto other industries, the boycott brigade is now targeting food delivery platform Swiggy and Bharat Matrimony.

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As a part of their promotions, Swiggy put up banners that spoke about not using eggs for playing Holi. In response, #boycottswiggy trended on Twitter.

“Seriously @SwiggyCares how can you dare to be so Hinduphobic? Never saw such advices during Shab-e-Raat or other festivals?” asked one user.

Parallel to this, according to reports, a Swiggy delivery agent was fired for refusing to deliver meat to a temple. “Instead of respecting his beliefs they fired him. The same Swiggy was giving gyaan when it was Muslim delivery guy. Say no to Hindu hate! #boycottswiggy (sic),” wrote a user with a blue tick.

Coming to the ruckus in relation to the Bharat Matrimony advert, the reason for the revolt seems to be very similar to that of Swiggy.

On the occasion of Holi and International Women’s Day, in a thought-provoking commercial, the matrimonial website campaigned to create a safer environment for women during Holi celebrations.

“Today, a third of women who’ve faced this trauma, have stopped playing Holi,” the advert read.

For allegedly connecting a Hindu festival to harassment, users on Twitter based Bharat Matrimony. “A message about Women’s Day could easily have been sent without linking it to Holi. But that wasn’t the goal. The goal was to vilify Holi. Stop using Hindu festivals for anti-Hindu propaganda,” read a tweet.

Both the brands faced flak from users online for being insensitive towards the Hindu festival. While there were a few users who felt that the ad campaigns were just spreading awareness and promoting their brand, they clearly were outnumbered.