‘Insult to humanity, worse than Ranveer Allahbadia’: PolicyBazaar’s latest commercial sparks outrage

Social media users have come out hard against a Policybazaar advertisement promoting life insurance policy coverage for families, describing the depiction as “worse than Ranveer Allahbadia”, “insanely insensitive” and “disgusting”. Some also expressed their opinions of the advertisement allegedly indulging in “horror storytelling” and “scaring” tactics as reasons for their criticism.

The ad seemingly popped up during the ICC Champion's Trophy India vs Pakistan match on February 23, and one social media user on X (formerly Twitter) expressed discomfort with the media message.

‘Only one who finds this insanely insensitive?’ asks X User

The user Siddharth (@SidKeVichaar), who has over 16,700 followers on X, questioned: “Am I the only one who finds this PolicyBazaar ad insanely insensitive?”

“A man just passed away, and the first thing his wife does is blame him for not buying term insurance? This isn’t financial awareness, it’s just insensitive storytelling,” Siddharth criticised.

At the time of writing this story, the post had been viewed at least 7,46,000 times and generated over 1,500 comments and quotes. It also had hashtags: #PolicyBazaar and #INDvsPAK.

One user also posted the full ad video for others to watch, captioning it simply: “Wtf” (sic). This post has been viewed 39,000 times.

How Netizens Reacted: ‘Worse than Ranveer Allahbadia… Disgusting… Horror Storytelling…’

Notably, many users on X agreed with Siddharth, one said, “You are not alone bro” and another added, “good.. I thought it's just me that felt this way… (sic)."

One user felt that the ad was worse than the Ranveer Allahbadia-India's Got Latent controversy, and wrote: “Insult to men and humanity. Worse than ranveer Allahbadia. (sic)”

Another user called for the scrapping of the ad, saying, “It is not only insensitive, it is disgusting too. Grow up @policybazaar. Pull this ad down & launch a sensible one. (sic)” 

One user felt that it was scare tactics, stating, “Insurance is usually sold by scaring the prospects, they are trying to do exactly this.” and another concurred, “Very True. And more precisely its HORROR storytelling! (sic)”

A user replied with a jibe: “insurance company: bhai mujhe sirf insurance bechna hai, bechne do?” and another was sarcastic: “Policy WALE tells you pati ke marne ke fayede (sic)”

‘Menfolk have it tough’ Users Point Burden on Men

Some of the users also lashed out at “feminists” for “devaluing” the lives of men and adding to society's burden on men to be providers — even in death.

One user said, “@policybazaar pls kindly note this is an insensitive ad, as it is menfolk have it tough with judiciary (divorce cases) and managers (ITes) trivializing our earnings and existence. Pls be more humane, Equitable gender laws and emotions work both ways in storytelling. Thank you. (sic)”

Another said, “Even advertisers value life of men less. These types of ads normalise blaming men for everything. This is type of culture is ending in US right now, and India is importing/promoting. (sic)”

Others wrote, “Must be idea of this add is by a feminist creature.” (sic) and “Ek to vo tapak gya aur ise insurance ki padi hai kya dikhana chaha rhe hai policy bazaar wale saari galti husband ki Hoti hai kya” (Translation: Firstly he died and (she) is worried about insurance, what is policybazaar trying to say, all fault lies with the husband?)