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WhiteHat Jr. ads draw flak from social media users

Social media users who didn't have children of their own were still shown ads for the platform which hosts live online coding classes for kids.

Most advertising is meant to help create brand recall, but in some cases, brand familiarity comes at the cost of negative brand perception. This has been the case with WhiteHat Jr’s ads on social media.

WhiteHat Jr is a Mumbai based edutech startup that specialises in teaching children how to code. The app helps children learn programming and encourages them to create games, animations, applications and more.

Although, something seems to have gone wrong with the brand’s advertising efforts. Many users took to social media to complain that they were being shown advertisements for the service when they did not have any kids of their own in the first place.

One user points out that the tone of advertising invokes a sense of FOMO or Fear Of Missing Out to push parents to take up their services. According to an Economic Times report, it is estimated that WhiteHat Jr may be spending Rs. 10-15 crore rupees on advertising on digital media platforms.

One user also rubbished one of WhiteHat Jr’s TVCs, which portrays multiple investors from global companies fighting tooth and nail at a child’s doorstep to invest in a child’s coding project.

In August 2020, BYJU'S acquired WhiteHat Jr. which in early August for $300 million. WhiteHat Jr’s social media also uses faces like Bill Gates, Sundar Pichai and Steve Jobs to push their classes – in a bid to encourage parents to help unlock their children’s potential.

At the time of acquisition, BYJU’s announced that it will make significant investments in WhiteHat Jr’s technology platform, product innovation while expanding the teacher base to cater to demand from new markets.

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