An advertisement on fixed deposit by a co-operative credit society that was displayed on a metro in Chennai sparked a row after Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP, Thamizhachi Thangapandian, said it portrayed women as objects.
The advertising campaign is an initiative of the Thiruvalluvar Transport Corporation Employee’s Co-operative Credit Society Ltd (THECOS), a financial services organization that calls itself a “reliable service provider for transport employees of Tamil Nadu.”
Thamizhachi Thangapandian, a DMK MP, was among the first to criticise the campaign, asking the Chennai Metro Rail administration to stop such a marketing campaign within a publicly used transport network carrying thousands of people daily. “An advertisement displayed inside the Chennai Metro Rail that degrades women and portrays them as objects is shocking. She demanded its immediate removal and urged authorities to tighten vetting guidelines to prevent similar oversight in the future.
It is essential to ensure that advertisements in public places take into account the dignity of women,” Thangapandian said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
