‘If it isn’t already obvious…’: Swiggy says ad taking a dig at Zomato’s ‘veg mode’ is not by them

Swiggy issued a clarification on Wednesday afternoon on the viral ad that has been doing the rounds on social media, in which it can be seen taking an apparent dig at Zomato’s ‘pure veg mode’ and their ‘veg fleet’. Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal, on Wednesday morning, scrapped the on-ground segregation of the fleet, and said that the veg fleet would not wear green, unlike what was previously announced. 

“We came across a fake ad this morning regarding a recent controversy. If it isn’t already obvious, this is NOT an ad by Swiggy. It was neither created by us, nor anybody affiliated with Swiggy. Kindly refrain from circulating or attributing it to Swiggy,” said the company in a statement. 

The ad in question is a poster where people can be seen rioting in the background, and what appears to be a landlord and a tenant at a door threshold. The poster has the logo and name of Swiggy on top with the below message on it: “Eviction-safe food delivery. In Indian neighbourhoods, your dietary preferences are best kept private. Our delivery fleet doesn’t leak your private habits to the world. You also save some money as we don’t have to pay for the ife insurance of our delivery staff against possible mob lynchings.”

The ad was posted by Snow Mountain AI co-founder and CTO Nilesh Trivedi with the caption, “New Swiggy ad hits hard. /s”. Later he reposted Swiggy’s statement, saying, “Looks like many people circulated the image while cropping out my "/s" sarcasm tag.” 

Zomato kickstarted a furious debate on vegetarian and non-vegetarian meals after it announced the veg mode. "India has the largest percentage of vegetarians in the world, and one of the most important feedback we’ve gotten from them is that they are very particular about how their food is cooked, and how their food is handled. To solve for their dietary preferences, we are today, launching a “Pure Veg Mode" along with a“Pure Veg Fleet” on Zomato, for customers who have a 100 per cent vegetarian dietary preference," Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal announced.

However, not everyone took to the announcement well. Many criticised Zomato for perpetuating casteism and discrimination based on food habits. Goyal later clarified that this feature strictly serves a dietary preference only. “And I promise, that if we see any significant negative social repercussions of this change, we will roll it back in a heartbeat,” he said. 

On Wednesday morning, Goyal announced that the regular fleet and the vegetarian fleet will not be distinguishable. Unlike announced before, the vegetarian fleet would not wear green and carry green delivery boxes but will continue to wear the regular red colour.