“New Low In Ads”: FIITJEE Slammed For Mocking Girl Who Left It For Another Institute

Coaching institute, FIITJEE’s latest advertisement drew heavy criticism for its unethical tactics. The ad used a student’s image to suggest declining performance after leaving their coaching. It further stoops to fear-mongering by associating a competitor with student suicides and using inflammatory language like “evil.”

Indian Revenue Service officer, Katyayani Sanjay Bhatia took to X, formerly Twitter to share a photo of the ad on social media and wrote, “A new low in advertisements @fiitjee. You are posting a picture of a child saying she performed badly because she left your institute! I have blurred the picture because I don’t believe in this disgusting way of claiming your superiority by belittling a girl child.” 

In a subsequent post, Mrs Bhatia wrote, “We talk about parents putting pressure on kids for IIT JEE, but what about this manner of advertising where you shame a student for not performing? And claiming superiority by claiming that she would have performed had she been in your institute? Shameful.”

Mrs Bhatia said that no institute has the right to shame students to claim its superiority. 

“And it doesn’t stop here. They are claiming their superiority by talking about the institute with a ‘history of suicides’. Shameful. Suicides in Kota are an issue that concerns us all above petty competition but claiming in this manner is cheap,” she further wrote on X.

Mrs Bhatia also urged the Education ministry to take note of such advertising malpractices. “Such advertising malpractices need to be checked- No institute has the right to shame students to claim its superiority.” 

See the post here:

A new low in advertisements @fiitjee . You are posting the picture of a child saying that she performed badly because she left your institute! I have blurred the picture because I don’t believe in this disgusting way of claiming your superiority by belittling a girl child. pic.twitter.com/W18Rd9rh1s

— Katyayani Sanjay Bhatia (@katyayani13) March 17, 2024

Since being shared, the ad has caught the attention of the internet and many users called the ad “staggeringly insensitive.” 

A user wrote, “The girl and her parents should sue them for criminal harassment and defamation. Mere withdrawal of the ad or an insincere apology ain’t enough.”

Another user commented, “I have respect for Fiitjee due to their teachers but This is horrible advertising!Don’t know how this was approved in the first place that too, on the first page of a national newspaper.”

“This is horrible! @fiitjee, please remove this advertisement from all places & issue a public apology to the general public, specifically to the girl. Any activist lawyer if seeing this comment, please initiate legal proceedings against this institute if possible,” the third user wrote.