What it had to solve
Promote an i-Pill emergency contraceptive on the quick-commerce app through a push notification to an individual user.
The idea
Write app notifications in a personal, flirty voice, here 'I miss you, Pallavi. Says i-Pill', to pull customers back to a product.
How it works
Zepto sent the notification 'I miss you, Pallavi. Says i-Pill emergency contraceptive pill', followed by three teary-eyed emoticons. Pallavi Pareek, who works on workplace sexual harassment prevention and DEI, shared it on LinkedIn and asked whether Zepto was suggesting she needed an emergency contraceptive.
What it did
The post drew widespread criticism, though some commenters defended the idea of promoting the product and others speculated it was a deliberate attempt at buzz. Zepto apologised on LinkedIn, saying 'we messed up', and said it had updated its processes and retrained its marketing team.
Background
In October 2024 Bengaluru-based quick-commerce platform Zepto sent a promotional push notification to a customer, Pallavi Pareek, reading 'I miss you, Pallavi. Says i-Pill emergency contraceptive pill', with three teary-eyed emoticons. She had never ordered the product from Zepto.
Pareek posted about it on LinkedIn, calling the message flirty and inappropriate and saying notifications should not be sleazy or provocative. It spread quickly. Zepto answered with a public apology on LinkedIn, admitting the notification was thoughtless and potentially harmful and saying it had corrected the issue by updating its processes and retraining its marketing team. ETBrandEquity compared the episode with Target's pregnancy-prediction story.
Why it lands
The warm 'I miss you' tone was applied to a product tied to a private, sensitive moment.
The recipient had no purchase history with the product, so the message read as presumption rather than personalisation.
A single customer's LinkedIn post gave the complaint a public audience before the company responded.
What you can take
A personalised, playful voice stops being charming when the product is intimate and the recipient never asked for it.
Since then
Zepto apologised publicly and said it changed its processes and retrained its marketing team. The article reports no sales or penalty outcome.
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The sources
- Q-commerce giant Zepto aborts campaign delivery brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com