Brands, do you know Reddit users are calling you out, unfiltered?

Type in Zepto, Swiggy, Blinkit, Zomato, or any rising D2C label, and what you’ll uncover isn’t mere feedback. From unpaid refunds to misleading advertising claims, what starts as a single bad experience frequently snowballs into viral, multi-part threads. Yet most Indian brands are either asleep at the wheel or still pretending Reddit doesn’t exist.

Just searchr/F***Zepto on Reddit and you’ll find a network of subreddits solely dedicated to bashing the brand; one has over 32,000 members.

A viral screenshot doing the rounds on social media shows Zepto recommending sex toys under the banner “Sweet surprises for mom.” The carousel triggered widespread criticism for tone-deaf categorisation. While likely a result of automated tagging, the damage is already done, amplified across LinkedIn and Reddit, where it’s being held up as a cautionary tale in brand governance gone wrong.

On r/Zomato, disturbing images of unsanitary food, broken packaging, and accusations of exploitation surface regularly. These are not one-off posts; they’re part of a consistent narrative stream.

There’s one dedicated to Blinkit also, where users call out false sustainability claims, exposing how Blinkit allegedly shows EV delivery while sending petrol scooters, directly challenging its green branding. 

These aren’t just online rants. This is crowdsourced accountability, and it’s snowballing.

Reddit’s combination of anonymity, permanence, and algorithmic transparency makes it an ideal stage for speaking truth to brand power. And what marketers can’t afford to overlook is that this isn’t hidden feedback buried in a support ticket. Brands’ dashboards might show a “case closed” status, but Reddit threads often reveal the full arc of unresolved tickets, ignored complaints, broken refund policies, or faulty product batches. These aren’t just complaints; they’re turning into well-documented public dossiers, and by the time these posts are picked up and reshared across X, Instagram Stories, or even YouTube Shorts, and the PR team figures it out, the damage is already done.

While BestMediaInfo cannot verify each claim, the scale of online backlash is undeniable. What’s more crucial is who’s reading it, and it's not just fringe Reddit lurkers, but the 110.4 million daily active users, a number that skews heavily Gen Z and late millennials, the exact consumer cohorts brands are desperate to woo.

Reddit’s rising clout

Reddit is no longer a fringe forum. Its Q2 2025 earnings proved its mainstream firepower. Its revenue surged 78% year-over-year to $500 million, with advertising alone contributing $465 million, a staggering 93% of total earnings. The platform now commands 110.4 million daily active users globally, up 21% from the previous year. Reddit also posted a $89 million net income, a dramatic turnaround from last year’s $10 million loss. Even its AI licensing arm is gaining momentum, bringing in $35 million through partnerships with OpenAI and Google. Its proprietary tool, Reddit Answers, now reaches over 6 million weekly users, up from just 1 million last quarter. Not just that, Reddit hosts some of the internet’s most hostile brand threads, and it’s also emerging as a prime advertising platform. AI-powered ad tools, community insights, and niche targeting make it a goldmine for brands looking to engage authentically.

 You may be spending crores on influencers, shoots, and awards, but Reddit doesn’t care about your Cannes Lions or glossy campaigns. It cares about how your product works on a rainy Monday night, how your delivery agent behaves, and whether your refund policy actually works. Gen Z lives on Reddit, seeking unfiltered truth, not brand-safe polish. Therefore, brands need to pull up their socks and start paying serious attention to the Reddit ecosystem, where unfiltered consumer conversations shape real perceptions and trust.