An organisation for domestic helps in Delhi, the Domestic Workers’ Forum, first objected to the ad, part of a series of eight commercials which was launched on August 30.
The commercial shows a maid stealing a mobile phone and hiding it inside her blouse while cleaning the house. But just when she is about to leave, the phone rings and alerts her employer. The tag line says: “No getting away from the network that connects always. Everywhere.”
Eknath Mane of the Gharkamgar Molkarni Sangathana, a Citu supported association of house helps in Maharashtra, said the ad was “insulting”. “We object to the commercial. It depicts our profession in bad light by showing a maid finding a mobile phone while cleaning the house and trying to steal it. It is insulting.”
He said the advertisement sought to brand the entire community as thieves.
The Sangathana, which claims to have a membership of over 1 lakh domestic workers across Mumbai and other cities in Maharashtra, has threatened court action against Tata DoCoMo, which has not responded yet.
DraftFCB+Ulka, the ad agency that created the commercials, claimed that the ad has been withdrawn but refused to elaborate on the matter.
The Delhi-based Domestic Workers’ Forum is in the process of taking up the matter with the parliamentary standing committee on labour.