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Zomato and Tinder's hilarious reactions to the PUBG ban is nothing but...
... The news wasn't even half a day old and the brands made their moves.
"The suddenness!
The sheer suddenness of the move!
The unexpected nature of the move!
The unpredictability of the move!
The fact that there was no warning!"
Journalist Arnab Goswami spoke these lines on his show in June 2020 after the Indian government banned 59 Chinese apps that included ByteDance owned short-video app TikTok.
Yesterday (2 September 2020), the Indian government banned 118 apps with links to China that included the popular game PUBG.
Goswami's words are not mentioned here for the government's move but the quick reaction by food ordering app Zomato's SMS push notification and Tinder India's Twitter post.
With everyone at home and tired of eating the same home-cooked food, Zomato India's SMS notification set the ball rolling when it asked, "Want to ban a home-made SUBG?" It shows the message was received at 7.30 pm while the news about the app ban broke around 5.30 pm.
For users of a dating app, their bio can make or break their chance with a potential date. Do it right and you may earn a right swipe. If not, better luck next time. With the ban on India's most popular game PUBG, many users' bio now had a big glaring hole and Tinder was right in asking, "Yeh jo bio mein gamer likha hai iska kya karna hai?" Talk about observation.
It's fascinating to see how quick and witty the brands can get when it comes to moment marketing.