Fast fashion, slower thinking: Myntra’s mugshot ad is dressed up with no insight

It’s meant to be quirky. Instead, it’s clueless.

Let’s start with the obvious: turning police custody into a punchline to sell concealer is both tone-deaf and wildly unfunny. In a country where women’s interactions with law enforcement are often fraught with fear and power imbalance, this feels like a complete misread of the room. Worse, the joke hinges on a tired, sexist trope that women care more about their looks than literally anything else, including legal trouble.

This isn’t just lazy writing. It’s the kind of creative that insists it’s “just harmless fun” while quietly insulting the intelligence of half its audience.

What’s particularly ironic is that the campaign’s premise—solving fashion emergencies with fast delivery—has real potential. A surprise date? An unplanned office Zoom? A last-minute wedding invite? Sure. But custody? Really? That’s your idea of “relatable chaos”?

To be fair, Myntra has a bit of history when it comes to getting gender sensitivity wrong. Back in 2021, it quietly redesigned its logo after a complaint claimed it resembled a woman in a sexually suggestive pose. The brand folded quickly, but the episode showed what happens when a company neither stands by its creative nor takes a real stand on representation.

This time, it’s not a logo—it’s a storyline. But the result is the same: a missed opportunity dressed up in slick production.

Brands love to talk about female empowerment, Gen Z resonance, and storytelling with purpose. This ad checks none of those boxes. It’s the kind of creative that makes you wonder if anyone in the room asked the one basic question: “Wait… should we be doing this?”

Myntra’s delivery may be fast, but clearly, the thinking needed a little more time.