People are hating Grab’s new ad in Indonesia (UPDATED)

A scene from Grab’s new social media ad launched in Indonesia yesterday.

Update September 21: Grab has removed the video from Youtube. Mediko Azwar, marketing director of Grab Indonesia sent us the following statement to explain the decision.

Grab’s ‘Choose Safety’ campaign aims to raise awareness of how road safety standards can be improved in Indonesia. We had hoped for our ‘Choose Safety’ online video to be thought-provoking – to encourage people to be more concerned about the safety and service levels of their day-to-day motorcycle taxi rides. There have been mixed reactions to the video and we thank everyone for sharing their feedback. On hindsight, we acknowledge that the graphics may have been grim and disturbing. We hope that those who have watched the ‘Choose Safety’ video will understand that our intention was not to shock, but to reinforce the consequences of accepting lower safety standards. […] We have replaced the original version of the video and hope people will focus on the core message of improving road safety for all Indonesians.

The original article is below.

“Disgusting,” “scary,” “unethical,” “is this a zombie movie trailer?” – these are some of the ways people have responded to Grab’s new video ad for Indonesia.

Not the kind of reaction you want from potential customers. The ad is part of Grab’s campaign #PilihAman – “Choose Safety”. (Updated six hours after publishing: Grab has deleted the original ad from its Youtube channel, and so the embedded video below is removed. The company instead quietly chopped out the controversial scenes and reuploaded a drastically shorter – and blood-free – version.)

“This ad is disgusting huh, makes me not want to use it,” says one Twitter user.

“So Grab campaigns for #ChooseSafety with an ad full of blood.”

“Why are you making a scary ad? Is it for zombies or for a service. Are you not able to try something more brilliant?”

Safer or not?

Insensitive ads