Swiggy clears the air on viral post mocking Zomato amid ‘pure veg’ controversy

A fake Swiggy ad circulating online was created by an X user named Nilesh (Image credit: @nileshtrivedi/X)

Swiggy has cleared the air on a viral ‘advertisement’ taking a dig at its competitor Zomato, confirming that it is fake. The ‘ad’ takes a dig at Zomato over its recently-announced initiative of a ‘pure veg’ fleet of delivery executives who will deliver only vegetarian food.

Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal had announced the initiative earlier this week, saying the pure veg fleet would wear green uniforms - before withdrawing the green dress code just a day later over massive backlash.

Goyal acknowledged the many drawbacks of segregating delivery executives on the basis green and red uniforms while announcing that all executives would continue to wear the signature red Zomato uniform. “This will ensure that our red uniform delivery partners are not incorrectly associated with non-veg food, and blocked by any RWAs or societies during any special days… our rider’s physical safety is of paramount importance to us,” he wrote.

“We now realise that even some of our customers could get into trouble with their landlords, and that would not be a nice if that happened because of us,” the CEO of Zomato added.

Among the many social media posts mocking Zomato over its pure veg fleet, one appeared to have been made by Swiggy. “Eviction-safe food delivery,” read the post, showing a picture of one person delivering food while another is being thrashed by a mob. “In Indian neighbourhoods, your dietary preferences are best kept private. Our delivery fleet doesn’t leak your private habits to the world,” it read.

The post was created by an X user named Nilesh, who shared it with the caption “New #swiggy ad hits hard.” He added “/s” to indicate that the post is sarcastic and not actually made by Swiggy, but it was shared several times on social media without the necessary disclaimer, leading many to think that Swiggy actually created an ad mocking its rival food delivery platform Zomato.

pic.twitter.com/u6gFVW8Uzt

— Swiggy (@Swiggy) March 20, 2024

In a public service announcement shared on X on March 20, Swiggy cleared the air on the fake ad.

“We came across a fake ad this morning regarding a recent controversy. If it isn't already obvious, this is NOT an ad by Swiggy. It was neither created by us nor anybody affiliated with Swiggy,” the company posted. “Kindly refrain from circulating or attributing it to Swiggy. Thank you,” it added.

In a post on X that he shared on March 20, Goyal said that all Zomato riders will be wearing the colour red, irrespective of which order they are delivering. Earlier, it was informed that the "pure veg" fleet will be wearing green while delivering orders.