French car manufacturer Citroen has removed an Egyptian commercial starring actress and pop star Amr Diab for being insensitive towards sexual harassment.
The French carmaker has a zero tolerance policy towards sexual harassment and reiterated that the commercial was removed in line of the same.
The advertisement showed Diab using the car’s camera to photograph a woman crossing the streets, apparently without the consent of that woman. There was constant criticism on the advertisement online, with journalist Reem Abdellatif calling it to be creepy.
“Who thought it would be a good idea to make an ad that enables sexual harassment in a country where 98% of women reported getting harassed at some point in their lives?”
Another user said, “What’s painful about Amr Diab’s advert is that the entire crew did not realise the mistake. No-one in the crew objected to taking pictures of girls in the streets without their consent. This is so sad.”
Citroen reacted to the negative feedback immediately and removed the advertisement from their social and streaming pages. The car manufacturer apologized for the negative interpretation in the film, which escaped their eyes at the time of formulation.
“Citroën cares for all communities in the countries where we operate and we do not tolerate any form of harassment.”
It added: “We deeply regret and understand the negative interpretation of this part of this film. With our business partner in Egypt, we took the decision to withdraw this commercial from all Citroën channels and we present our sincere apologies to all offended communities by this film.”
Amr Diab has so far not commented on the criticism. The news of the advertisement being removed was welcomed by Netizens who were previously surprised at the message being highlighted and displayed within it.
YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_c2yNylxi8