The Chinese detergent maker responsible for that astoundingly racist ad that went viral last week has issued the non-apology of the year.
Shanghai Leishand Cosmetics – which produces the Qiaobi-brand detergent – issued a statement apologising for the fact that their commercial caused controversy, but blamed the media for overblowing it.
“We expressed regret that the ad should have caused a controversy,” the statement said. “But we will not shun responsibility for controversial content.
“We express our apology for the harm caused to the African people because of the spread of the ad and the over-amplification by the media.
“We sincerely hope the public and the media will not over-read it.”
If you haven’t seen it yet, the ad literally depicts a black man getting a face full of detergent, being shoved in the washing machine, and emerging as a Chinese man. The woman in the clip *literally* washes his ethnicity away. But no. The media is overreacting.
The company pulled the ad after it went viral, but you can watch it below:
Not… not great. ‘Very bad’ could also describe it.
A company representative identified as Mr Wang told the Chinese nationalist newspaper The Global Times that critics were “too sensitive”, and that racial discrimination wasn’t even thought about when they made the ad earlier this year.
“We meant nothing but to promote the product, and we had never thought about the issue of racism,” he said. “The foreign media might be too sensitive about the ad.”
He also claimed that the full version of the ad – the one that went viral – was never actually screened.
“Instead of using the full version of the commercial, we actually aired a 5-second version which does not have the black character,” he said. “We have no idea why the full version went viral online.”
A Beijing-based advertising executive told The Global Times that he reckoned the company’s blindness to issues of race is indicative of the Chinese population at large.
“I think Chinese people will take the ads as a joke and still buy the products, as most of us don’t have a clear understanding of racism, but the product may be boycotted in Western countries,” said Huang Jing.
Source: Al Jazeera / The Global Times.
Photo: Shanghai Leishand Cosmetics.
