Ad description
A paid-for YouTube ad, for RiseGuide, a self-improvement app, seen on 6 July 2026, opened with a woman named Priya practising in front of a mirror how she would introduce herself on her first day in a new job. She appeared to be of South Asian descent and to have a South Asian accent.
Priya approached a female receptionist. She appeared nervous and said, “Sorry. Hi. I’m Priya. First day. I’m not sure where…”. The receptionist interjected in an American accent and without looking at Priya: “HR is on the third floor.” Priya replied, “Right. Sorry. Thank you so much.”
Priya was then in the office kitchen where a white man and a white woman were talking. They had American accents. The man said, “You see the new hire? Senior analyst, supposedly.” The woman replied, “Where is she from?” He answered, “Probably some outsource shop in Bangalore.” The woman then told Priya that the functioning coffee machine was not working and to use the one upstairs. Priya replied, “Oh. Okay. Sorry. Thank you so much.” The man said to the woman, “You’re cruel.”
In another scene Priya was invited to introduce herself in a meeting. She appeared nervous and stumbled over her words. She said, “Um. Hi everyone. Sorry. So I’ve been doing analytics for eight years. Mostly fintech. And I’m really excited to…Sorry am I going too long…to be here. Sorry […]”. A white male colleague asked, “Sorry. Priya. Just so we know, is fintech like the US fintech or...?” She replied, “No, I worked here, in New York. For the last six years.” He appeared surprised and said “Oh. Cool. Welcome.”
In a further scene a white male colleague showed Priya how to use an IT system. He said slowly and deliberately, “This is what we call the basics. Do you follow? It’s English. Technical.” He then told her to work the system out for herself as he needed to be elsewhere.
In a later scene, Priya spoke on the phone to her partner. She said, “I don’t know what I’m doing there. I sound like an intern. I apologised 14 times today […] They asked me if I worked in Bangalore. I’ve been here 11 years […]” Her partner said, “You’re the most qualified person in that building.” Priya replied, “Then why does it not sound like that when I open my mouth?”
In a further scene in a café, Priya talked with her former colleague, a white woman with an American accent. Priya said, “I apologised 14 times. One of them assumed I just got off the plane from Bangalore […]”
Her former colleague’s reply included, “It’s not your accent. It’s not where you’re from. It’s how you walked in. You walked in apologising.” Priya replied, “I was being…” and her former colleague spoke over Priya to say, “Nice, I know. Nine years I watched you be nice and nine years I watched you stay senior analyst […] It’s not your fault. Nobody trained this. School didn’t. Your parents didn’t. The good news, it’s trainable.” She also said, “Articulation training […] Stop opening with ‘Sorry’. Stop saying ‘I was hoping for’. Stop ending with ‘does that make sense?’ I started two years ago. Week one I stopped saying ‘sorry to bother you.’ Week three, my CEO asked for my opinion first. Five months in, I got the VP offer.”
On-screen text stated, “28 DAYS LATER” and Priya was shown presenting confidently in a meeting to which a senior colleague responded, “Great. Run it.” Next, in the office kitchen, a white male colleague said, “Sorry about your first week.”
The ad then switched to three women, all appearing to be of South Asian descent and with South Asian accents, making a podcast in which they discussed the app’s articulation training. One said, “It’s designed exactly for people like you: professionals over 40 with untrained communication skills” and “Tap the screen. Take the test. And start tomorrow.”
The app’s lessons were then listed on screen under the heading, “UNLOCK YOUR CHARISMA”. A voice-over described communication skills training ending with a call to action to tap the screen. On-screen text stated, “RISEGUIDE START BUILDING YOUR CHARISMA NOW”.
Issue
Four complainants, who believed the ad perpetuated negative racial stereotypes about South Asian women, challenged whether the ad was irresponsible, harmful and offensive.
Response
Celeb Innovations Ltd t/a RiseGuide said the intention had been to depict fictional workplace situations involving communication confidence, self-advocacy and professional development. The scenarios were intended to illustrate challenging interpersonal dynamics and the development of communication skills. They said they were not intended to suggest that any of the behaviours or characteristics were inherent to, typical of, or attributable to any particular racial or ethnic group.
They said the ad depicted two distinct issues operating at the same time: prejudicial treatment by Priya’s colleagues and Priya’s own communication-confidence and self-advocacy habits. They said the articulation training was presented as addressing those communication habits, including repeated apologising, hesitation and difficulty expressing herself confidently, rather than the prejudice directed towards her.
RiseGuide said that Priya's ethnicity and accent were not intended to be portrayed as deficiencies. They said that the discriminatory, dismissive and inappropriate conduct by other characters was intended to be shown as negative workplace behaviour, and not to be endorsed, normalised or presented as acceptable. They said that this conduct was portrayed negatively, while Priya was presented as an experienced and capable professional. For example, in the later meeting scene, she took ownership of the dashboard refactor, identified specific technical issues and committed to delivering a revised version, to which her manager responded, “Great. Run it”.
Furthermore, Priya’s white former colleague, was presented as having undertaken the same articulation training to address similar apologetic communication habits. She explained that she stopped saying “sorry to bother you” after starting the training and then described changes in her professional interactions. They believed that context was relevant to whether the communication challenges addressed by the product were presented as characteristics of South Asian women, or as communication, confidence and self-advocacy issues capable of affecting individuals from different backgrounds.
RiseGuide did not believe the ad endorsed racial or ethnic stereotypes. However, they recognised how the scenarios could have been perceived and apologised for the concerns that had been raised. They said that the ad had already been withdrawn, before they had been made aware of the complaints; that they had discontinued the ad, and similar advertising; and that they did not intend to re-run it. They had reviewed their internal creative and advertising review processes, paying attention to advertising involving sensitive matters relating to race, ethnicity and other protected characteristics.
Google said that, under its terms, advertisers were responsible for complying with applicable law and regulations, including the CAP Code.
Assessment
Upheld
The CAP Code required marketers to ensure advertising was prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society, and to avoid causing harm or offence, with particular care to be taken to avoid causing offence on grounds of various protected characteristics, including race.
The ad was for a self-improvement, communication-skills app described as an articulation app “designed […] for […] professionals over 40 with untrained communication skills”. The ad was long form. It lasted five minutes and involved a storyline about a woman starting a new job at a corporate organisation in the US. The ASA considered that the woman, called Priya, who was of South Asian descent, was presented as being capable and experienced in her role, including with her partner’s statement that “You’re the most qualified person in that building”. However, her white colleagues were shown questioning her competence with statements such as “Senior analyst, supposedly” and appearing surprised when she said she had previously been working in New York for several years.
We understood that there was a negative racial stereotype around South Asian people working in outsourced workplaces. We considered that the ad drew on that stereotype because a white woman asked, “Where is she from?” and a white man replied, “Probably some outsource shop in Bangalore.” Priya also said, “They asked me if I worked in Bangalore” and “One of them assumed I just got off the plane from Bangalore.”
The white male showing Priya how to use an IT system spoke slowly and deliberately, “This is what we call the basics. Do you follow? It’s English. Technical.” Although, by responding with “I follow”, Priya was shown to understand him, we considered that this scene drew on a stereotype that someone of South Asian descent would not understand English very well.
Although Priya’s former colleague told her that the problem was “not your accent” and “not where you’re from”, the solution presented to Priya was that she must change by using “Articulation training”. Priya was also shown questioning her own ability to communicate: “Then why does it not sound like that when I open my mouth?”
We considered that such scenes, combined with the scenario at the end with three women, all appearing to be of South Asian descent and with South Asian accents, discussing articulation training, presented women of South Asian descent as poor communicators who needed to change how they spoke in order to succeed in the workplace.
We also understood that there was a negative racial stereotype based on the association between South Asian women and submissive, subservient or accommodating behaviour. We further assessed whether the ad reinforced that stereotype.
In the ad Priya was seen repeatedly apologising to colleagues even though she had not done anything wrong. She said “Sorry” twice to a receptionist who was impolite towards her. She said “Sorry” to a man and a woman who had obviously been talking about her in the office kitchen. When introducing herself in a business meeting Priya said “Sorry” three times and asked if she had been talking for too long. She also referred to the 14 times she had apologised during the day when she spoke to her partner on the phone and to her former colleague in the café. Her former colleague’s reply included references to Priya apologising. She appeared nervous and hesitant, despite having many years of experience in her role. We considered that the ad portrayed Priya as acting in an excessively deferential manner to her colleagues.
We therefore considered that the ad had the effect of perpetuating a negative racial stereotype about South Asian women being less confident and deferential.
We welcomed RiseGuide’s comments that they had discontinued the ad and would not re-run it, as well as that they had reviewed their processes. However, for the reasons stated above, we considered that the ad had the effect of perpetuating negative racial stereotypes that women of South Asian descent were poor communicators who didn’t understand English very well, were likely to work in outsourced workplaces and were typically less confident and deferential. On that basis we concluded that the ad featured harmful stereotypes, was irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.3 (Social responsibility) and 4.1 (Harm and offence).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Celeb Innovations Ltd t/a RiseGuide to ensure that future ads were socially responsible, did not perpetuate harmful stereotypes or cause serious offence on the grounds of race.
