Lazada Investigated for Advertising Sale of Rape Drugs called Sleep Well
If you ever shopped on Lazada, Shopee or other Southeast Asian e-commerce platform, you might come across some weird item for sale, and some of these item really strange however, on such recent advertisement in the Philippines when a local celebrity found accompanying images to be offensive and support of rape culture. March 4, 2021, Filipino celebrity and former politician Kim Atienza – who is known for hosting multiple TV segments – took to Twitter to air his disgust at seeing a Lazada ad that seemed to promote the sale of a “rape” drug.
The ad showed a listing for a drug or medication which will help the user fall asleep and the title is called deep sleep of one spray which will cause a person to fall asleep instantly. Even worst is that the image used for the advertisement were showing a woman unconscious in the back of a car with her breast exposed, but the nipple were covered with cartoon graphic.
Following this outburst, Lazada Philippines’ Twitter account made a direct reply to the account apologizing for the ad and assuring him that their team was “already on top of the issue.” Netizen also pointed out tweet from other followers also pointed out other weird advertisements from the platform, such as a listing for an “enthusiastic little brother”. Not sure what that’s all about.
This raises whether e-commerce operators such as Lazada, Shopee, and others of the same have any idea as to what exactly goes on sale on their platforms each day.
