https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUWYSI3cHqY
A Chinese detergent firm has been forced to release a statement after making what is now widely considered to be the ‘most racist advert ever’.
The ad features a young black man covered in paint catcall a Chinese woman, before she shoves a detergent capsule in his mouth and forces him head first into a washing machine, reports the indy100.
Only for a pale skinned Chinese man to emerge from the machine – the implication being that the detergent has ‘washed’ the man’s skin. So pretty bad then.
Needless to say it has received a hell of a lot of negative feedback on social media as many people tried to make sense of how the advert was even allowed to air:
this is the most racist advert i've ever seen wtf china https://t.co/rXi4gSQxPT
— jake (@aonara) May 26, 2016
When China wins the racist competition with fair and lovely. #RacistAd
— Saad Mirza (@MirzaSaad07) May 29, 2016
The world reacts with outrage to the most #racistad of 2016 (Video) https://t.co/QIXch8i9eu
— Fluorinet Digital (@FluorinetPR) May 27, 2016
Due to the overwhelmingly bad reaction, Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics – the makers of the detergent – issued a statement:
We express regret that the ad should have caused a controversy but we will not shun responsibility for controversial content.
A spokesperson for the company later spoke to Chinese newspaper The Global Times:
We meant nothing but to promote the product and we had never thought about the issue of racism.
The foreign media might be too sensitive about the ad.
Yep. That’s what he said. Too. Sensitive.
We’ve all been too sensitive about a man having the colour of his skin literally washed away and then appearing more attractive to a woman.
For fucks sake. Is it even possible to be too sensitive about that?
