Bombay Shaving Company criticised for 'insensitive' ad on UP state board exam topper Prachi Nigam

Bombay Shaving Company founder-CEO Shantanu Deshpande called the ad 'just a heartfelt message to a fellow Bae.' (Image credit: Shantanu Deshpande/LinkedIn)

Bombay Shaving Company and its founder-CEO Shantanu Deshpande have been slammed on social media for a full-page ad the company published on UP state board exam topper Prachi Nigam, in one of the leading dailies. The teenage girl first made headlines for scoring 98.5 percent in the Class 10 exams, and then for how she got trolled for her appearance and facial hair.

Aimed at inspiring Nigam to ignore the trolls, the Bombay Shaving Company advertisement read: "Dear Prachi, they are trolling your HAIR today, they'll applaud your A.I.R (all India rank) tomorrow."

And in a much smaller font, the company added, "We hope you never get bullied into using our razor."

Sharing the ad on LinkedIn, Deshpande wrote, "It was shocking to see the amount of hate targeted at a teenage girl who had TOPPED AN EXAM because of her facial hair. Our simple message to this amazing young woman with such a bright future. Love to see my team ooze class. No opportunistic sale, QR code, nothing. Just a heartfelt message to a fellow Bae."

The advertisement and the message, however, did not sit well with several social media users who called it "insensitive", "desperate", and "in awful taste".

"Bombay Shaving Company does a full-page ad for Prachi, the UP board topper, who was being trolled for facial hair. Haven’t seen something this desperate," Hood co-founder Abhishek Asthana wrote on X. "This message goes to their own TG, not to the people who bullied her, hey, please remember to buy our razors while you shed a tear for her. Read the line on the bottom right. Laughable."

Runner and senior management professional Shajan Samuel commented, "Absolutely inexplicable ad in awful taste. A poor girl is going through such a tough situation in her life, but Bombay Shaving Company will not leave her alone, trying to take mileage by selling their Razors, founder Shantanu posting this Ad on LinkedIn and praising their marketing team for coming out with a once in a lifetime ad."

"Once someone gifted me a Bombay Shaving gift kit, I gifted it to someone else, then the person who gave me the gift told he also received this gift from someone else. Bad product bad ad."

X user Joy Das added, "The team at Bombay Shaving Company actually thought it is a brilliant ad Campaign. And they thought the line - We hope you never get bullied into using our razor - is a classic touch, without any sales push, to demonstrate whatever they thought it demonstrates about them."