Myntra faces backlash for trolling KL Rahul

While many brands made memes to laugh through the pain of India's performance in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022, Myntra crossed a line, according to netizens. Its post seemingly trolled KL Rahul and the brand is now facing backlash.

On November 10, India lost against England in ICC T20 World Cup 2022. It's evidently not how India would have hoped for it to go. To capture the nation's pain, brands created topical memes, but some might have gone too far in the process.

Indian cricketer, KL Rahul was being brutally bashed on social media for an unfortunate game. Myntra too climbed on the troll bandwagon and shared a tweet, which received a lot of backlash in no time.

KL Rahul’s fav t-shirt: pic.twitter.com/fyid7aAojJ

— Myntra (@myntra) November 10, 2022

Also Read: T20 World Cup 2022 campaigns – Brands bleed blue

Industry experts voiced their opinions on various platforms and called out the brand. Karthik Srinivasan, a communication and social media expert, said in his LinkedIn post, "The irony is that when individual people do this, it may pass off, because well... people are people. But brands really don't need to get down to this level just for getting so-called 'engagement'."

Nikhil Narayan, Head of Creative (Internal Comms + Social Media) at TCS shared on LinkedIn, " 14.7k likes - Until people stop buying cringe, brands will keep selling cringe. Sad state of affairs."

Mustafa Rangwala, Media & Entertainment Professional at Go Fish Entertainment, said on LinkedIn, "Controversy creates cash - mostly for MEDIA BUSINESSES. Except this company's core business is not media it's something else."

Last year, Swiggy faced flak on Twitter for reposting a fan-made meme. The Tweet caught the attention of Hitman's fans who called out the brand for its disrespectful comment that targeted Rohit Sharma.

The hashtag #boycottswiggy trended on Twitter for some period after the tweet. The brand later posted an apology.

A special message to the Hitman’s fans

We reposted a fan’s tweet in good humour. While the image was not created by us, we do admit it could’ve been worded better. It was not meant to offend anyone in the least. Needless to say, we’re always with the Paltan.

— Swiggy (@Swiggy) April 13, 2021

Zomato too received flak for its Instagram post on Dussehra. The brand tweeted a joke that falls under the dark humour category which is not relatable and appealing to many. Zomato deleted the post after receiving backlash.

Myntra hasn't reacted to the backlash yet.

What do you think about brands taking this route of sarcasm? Let us know in the comments below.

- Myntra deleted the Tweet before midnight of November 11.