ITC Foods responds to 'Boycott Bingo' calls on Twitter…

For the last two days, Twitter has been with ‘Boycott Bingo’ calls because fans of the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput felt a new Bingo ad for its Mad Angles variety featuring actor Ranveer Singh mocked Rajput.

ITC Foods has released a statement where its spokesperson said:

“A completely false, erroneous and mischievous message is being posted/circulated alleging that an advertisement of Bingo! is making fun of a late Bollywood celebrity.

Such kind of erroneous messages are knowingly spreading falsehoods. We request you to not fall prey to such mischievous posts.

The recent Bingo! advertisement was shot more than a year ago in October 2019. It is being aired this year because of a delay in the launch of Bingo! Mad Angles Cheese Nachos and Bingo! Mad Angles Pizza due to the Covid-19 pandemic”.

On November 18, 2020, fans of the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput rallied and called for a boycott of Bingo on Twitter, the chips brand from ITC, an Indian conglomerate.

The point of contention was an ad for Bingo’s Mad Angles chip variety featuring actor Ranveer Singh. We see Singh, in the ad, recite random lines and words from Science such as “… paradoxical photons of atrangi algorithm ko e=mc2 mein lagakar….” All this to keep curious relatives from asking “Beta, aage kya plan hai?”

Now, because Rajput was famed not just for his acting prowess but for his knowledge in science and technology, his fans believed Bingo was taking a dig at him through this ad by having Singh recite lines from science and use words such as “photons”.

Recently, Tanishq came under fire twice within the space of a month from online trolls and bullies. First, for an inter-faith ad which netizens claimed promoted ‘love jihad’. Second, when trolls were furious with the brand’s Diwali ad because a line from actress Sayani Gupta on how she’d celebrate Diwali this year said, “… Definitely, no firecrackers. I don’t think anyone should light (burst) any firecrackers…”