Every year advertisers try to think out of the box to attract the audience. Sometimes the idea becomes a hit and makes it to the wall of every social media user appreciating the thought of the creator and the brand. The other times, while experimenting with the idea, creators and advertisers miscalculate the impact of the ad and hence become prone to criticism and get boycotted by people.

This year many ads were highly criticized due to various reasons and even the government had to intervene to take some serious actions against them Here are the top 5 ads, that were highly criticized by people or had negative reactions from the audiences.

Layer’r Shot

The perfume/deodorant brand Layer’r Shot came up with two TVCs that seemingly made light of rape. The ads in the series involved a bunch of men who play on the word "Shot", which is incidentally an innuendo for sexual intercourse as well as the name of the product. The women in the ads initially get unnerved about the men's intention only to feel relieved that they were talking about the perfume.

People on the internet took a stand against the brand and were hunting for the agency that came up with this idea. It turns out that the idea came from the in-house team. Commentators believed it was just a case of an inside joke that was taken seriously and mindlessly.

After being in news for all the wrong reasons, the ads was pulled down. An order was passed by the Ministry of Broadcasting and Information asking Twitter and YouTube to pull down the ad and even erase its traces from their platform.

After the removal of the ad, the company came up with an apology statement saying that they didn’t imagine that the repercussions would be this, the letter also said that the ad had gone through mandatory approvals. People called out the apology by the brand as a fake apology and a way to grab eyeballs.

After the incident, ASCI and MIB are now in talks to create a structure or a system to pass advertisements.

Vimal Elaichi featuring Ajay Devgn, Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar

The triumvirate of Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar and Shah Rukh Khan coming together for an ad is indeed groundbreaking, but fans didn't think so.

In April, Vimal Elaichi courted controversy by featuring Akshay Kumar in the famous Zuba Kesari campaign with Ajay Devgn. This made the internet go berserk as they recalled Kumar once said that he will never endorse a tobacco product after being called out for his 1998 Red & White cigarette ad.

This made the actor write an apology to his fans on social media saying that he committed a mistake and he is going to cut ties with the brand henceforth. This only added to the virality of the ad, which was then turned into a gazillion memes. While Kumar was heavily trolled by netizens, this worked out pretty well for the brand as it got the publicity it was looking for. The ad film has received over 100M views on Youtube and more than 16,000 comments.

Vim Black featuring Milind Soman

Vim has previously tried to broach the topic of equality in domestic duties in the "Nazariya Badlo" ad campaign; however, it dropped the ball with the Vim Black campaign. The HUL dishwashing soap brand created a mock campaign for a dishwashing liquid made only for men. The ad made some over-the-top claims and mock benefits, which clearly hinted that it was a satire, but it wasn't exactly received warmly.

Audiences across platforms called out the ad, accusing the company of supporting pseudo-feminism, and misogyny in the garb of equality.

A LinkedIn user wrote, “Vim, do men need a different coloured packaging to wash dishes? Is that how they will feel #macho? The intention to encourage men to share household chores is appreciable. But like this? Are you trying to break down gender stereotypes or promote it?”

Later the brand came out with a statement that they were joking and they do not intend to spark any controversy rather they wanted to spark a conversation where men could also be a part of the daily chores and speak about it normally to people.

Au Small Finance Bank ad featuring Aamir Khan and Kiara Advani

The ad portrays a couple starting their married life by breaking the stereotype of the bride entering into the groom’s home. The ad starring Amir Khan and Kiara Advani showed the groom performing the grihpravesh ritual and staying with the bride’s family. This sparked a controversy on the internet as a section of netizens accused the bank of trying to change the traditions.

Calls for boycott followed, which were bolstered by the right-wing internet's ire against Khan's previous statements. The hashtags #boycottAamir, #BoycottAUSmallFinanceBank was trending on Twitter. Film director, Vivek Agnihotri also took to Twitter to express his rage against the ad, he wrote - “I just fail to understand since when Banks have become responsible for changing social & religious traditions? I think @aubankindia should do activism by changing corrupt banking system.

Aisi bakwaas karte hain fir kehte hain Hindus are trolling. Idiots.”

This campaign became the talk of the town, and while many people didn’t find anything wrong with it, a section of people was up in arms against it.