Swiggy Clears Air On Viral Post Mocking Zomato Amid 'Pure Veg' Controversy

Image Credit: @nileshtrivedi/X

New Delhi: Swiggy, The online food ordering and delivery platform has clarified that the viral ‘advertisement’ aimed at its competitor Zomato is fake. The advertisement humorously mocks Zomato's recent introduction of a 'pure veg' fleet of delivery executives, who exclusively deliver vegetarian food items.

“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,” Swiggy stated in a statement. ()

pic.twitter.com/u6gFVW8Uzt — Swiggy (@Swiggy) March 20, 2024

Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal had unveiled the initiative earlier this week stating that the 'pure veg' fleet would be identifiable by wearing green uniforms. However, in reaction to considerable criticism and backlash, the company decided to withdraw the green dress code just one day after its announcement. ()

Goyal admitted the various disadvantages of separating delivery executives based on green and red uniforms while announcing that all executives would still wear the distinctive red Zomato uniform. “This will ensure that our red uniform delivery partners are not incorrectly associated with non-veg food, and blocked by any RWAs or societies during any special days… our rider’s physical safety is of paramount importance to us,” he stated.

Adding further, the CEO stated “We now realise that even some of our customers could get into trouble with their landlords, and that would not be a nice if that happened because of us,”.

Amid numerous social media posts ridiculing Zomato for its 'pure veg' fleet, one seemed to originate from Swiggy. The post displayed an image of a person delivering food while another person is being attacked by a mob. It stated, “Eviction-safe food delivery,” emphasizing the importance of privacy in Indian neighborhoods regarding dietary choices. The post assured that Swiggy's delivery fleet respects customers' privacy and does not disclose their preferences to others.

New #swiggy ad hits hard.

/s pic.twitter.com/BBSkASiHui — Nilesh (@nileshtrivedi) March 20, 2024

An X user named Nilesh shared this post with the caption  “New #swiggy ad hits hard.” followed by "/s" to show it was sarcastic and not an actual Swiggy advertisement. However, it was reposted numerous times on social media without this clarification, causing many to believe that Swiggy had indeed created an ad mocking its competitor, Zomato.