'Smoky chicken' Zomato meme lands a few hits and misses

Residents of Delhi and its adjoining areas continue to struggle with the quality of air as the Air Quality Index (AQI) continues to remain in the poor to very poor category. People have been beating the gloom by posting memes about the situation, with a variety of very creative memes taking over social media.

Brands have also been taking the opportunity to showcase their creativity on the issue with cheeky one-liners and memes. The most recent one was food delivery app, Zomato which posted a funny but concerning meme which resonated with the residents of the polluted cities.

In a tweet on November 7, Zomato apologised to the people of Delhi-NCR as their order of 'chicken' would have a smoky taste. Why? Due to the polluted air. Zomato wrote "Sorry Delhi-NCR, our chat support can't help if your chicken gets delivered as smoked chicken," along with a crying emoji.


See the tweet here:


The post currently has more than 12,000 likes and 815 retweets so far. While many chimed in and shared their own pollution related woes, some others didn't quite find it as funny.

One user posted, "I don't think that's supposed to be funny but it's okay.'' Another commented, "Delhites went from 'fogg chall raha hai' to 'smog challl raha hai''. A third said, "haha jokes on you Zomato.. this tweet is not visible for delhiites right now.'' A fourth criticised the food app for joking about a serious issue, saying, ''Zomato ko comedy aa rahi hai like bro ppl are dying here.''

A layer of smoky haze shrouded Delhi as its air quality deteriorated to the upper end of the "very poor" category on Tuesday due to calmer winds. The air quality is forecast to become worse over the next two days due to unhelpful meteorological conditions. The capital's 24-hour average AQI stood at 348 on Tuesday morning, according to the Central Pollution Control Board data.