Chinese Company Behind Racist Ad Issues Apology

By Bridget O'Donnell

Just a day after accusing foreign media of being 'too sensitive,' the detergent company behind the racist ad that made international headlines issued an official apology on its Weibo account over the weekend.

The ad, which promoted the Qiaobi Laundry Detergent Ball, depicted a woman shoving a black man into a washing machine after sticking one of the detergent balls in his mouth. After going through a complete spin cycle, he magically emerged from the machine as a Chinese man. The ad, which was nearly an exact copy of an Italian commercial that aired around 10 years ago, had seven million views on Youtube and was picked up by many international news outlets.

Following the worldwide backlash, the company apologized on Weibo, writing:

On May 27, media outlets and individuals posted reports from the United States on Sina Weibo which said that an advertisement for Qiaobi Detergent was racist and had caused a great deal of controversy after being uploaded to Youtube. We took steps to verify these claims and found that the Washington Post, LA Times, CNN, BBC and AFP had all reported on the story, generating a huge amount of public interest. Upon learning of this we immediately set about dealing with the situation and would like to issue the following statement:

1) We had no intention of discriminating against people of color. The color of one's skin is not the standard by which we should judge each other. We strongly oppose and condemn racial discrimination.

2) We regret that our advertisement led to controversy and have no intention of shirking our responsibility. We have stopped airing the advertisement and have removed links to the offending video. We hope that internet users and the media will also stop disseminating the video.

3) The advertisement and the surrounding controversy has hurt those of African descent, and because of this we would like to apologize. We sincerely hope that internet users and the media will not continue to over-analyze the situation.

4) Qiaobi Detergent is a Chinese household brand. We hope that Chinese brands will continue to find success in international markets.

This all comes a day after the company dismissed the controversial ad's backlash, with a spokesperson from the brand's Shanghai-based parent company telling 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." That same spokesperson told the GT that the version which aired was actually only 5-seconds long and didn't contain the black character, adding "we have no idea why the full version went viral online." (Sounds like someone in Qiaobi's PR department is in big trouble).

The ad has also garnered reaction within China's black community. Shanghai-based American interpreter Chaniece Bracken wrote about the ad's 'unfettered discrimination against black people' on Sixth Tone, while others debated the spot in a #RacistChineseAd roundtable discussion.

This isn't the first time ads and products in China have sparked worldwide outrage for racism. The Chinese version of the Star Wars: Force Awakens poster earned criticism for its shrunken image of John Boyega...

... and then, of course, there's Darlie Toothpaste.

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