Careem apologises for election themed marketing campaign
Ride-hailing app Careem has apologised for its latest marketing campaign that featured a play on slogans of various Pakistani political parties.
The campaign, which rolled out in the last week, included taglines such as "Mujhay Promo Kyun Nikala?" and "Kal bhi promo zinda tha/Aaj bhi promo zinda hai!" and promo codes like "AFTERNUUN" and "10PERCENT", which hit out at Pakistan Muslim League and Pakistan People's Party respectively.
The campaign received backlash on Twitter for "hurting political sentiments". Some people took objection to Careem "imposing [its] political affiliations on [users], while others accused the app for harbouring "a political agenda".
In their apology, Careem emphasised that the goal of the campaign was to encourage people to vote and that they are a "politically neutral" corporation.
We sincerely apologise for hurting your sentiments. Careem is politically neutral and our election taglines covered all popular political slogans. Our singular aim is to get everyone to the polling stations. #CareemForDemocracy pic.twitter.com/VoDMhbLM8q
— Careem Pakistan (@CareemPAK) July 9, 2018
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