Delhi Metro: DMRC removes breast cancer ad asking women to ‘check oranges’

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Thursday said it has removed an advertisement on breast cancer awareness that asked women to check their “oranges”, after the posters provoked outrage online.
The advertisement, which was displayed inside a Metro coach, was part of a campaign by former cricketer Yuvraj Singh’s NGO YouWeCan to raise awareness about breast cancer.
The poster had an AI-generated image of a woman holding oranges with the caption “Check your oranges once a month.”
Though the poster was installed only on one train on the Yellow Line, the issue quickly snowballed on social media, with the online community roundly criticising the advertisement.
In a statement on Thursday, DMRC said, “The ad was displayed only in one train and was removed at 7.45 pm on Wednesday. DMRC always strives to be sensitive to public sentiments and doesn’t encourage any campaign, activity or advertising which is not in good taste or in defiance of prevalent guidelines of advertising in public places.”
The corporation stated that it will strive to ensure inappropriate advertising does not occur on its premises.
Meanwhile, YouWeCan chief mentor and trustee Poonam Nanda, defending the use of oranges in the poster, said that in India, open discussions about breasts “can be sensitive”.
“Some have questioned our choice of using oranges in the breast cancer awareness campaign, but few have asked why. As a two-time breast cancer survivor, I fully support this metaphor. In India, where openly discussing breasts can be sensitive, creative visuals help open up conversations about health that might otherwise be avoided,” she said, referring to the “Know Your Lemons” campaign by US-non profit Worldwide Breast Cancer, that used lemons to illustrate symptoms of breast cancer.
“Despite initial discomfort, it broke taboos and empowered women to identify early warning signs. Similarly, in Argentina, campaigns have used vegetables like cucumbers and pumpkins to symbolise breasts, helping raise awareness for self-examinations,” she said, adding that the NGO had educated more than 300,000 women on breast cancer and screened 150,000 women across the country.