A Chinese laundry detergent company has blamed foreign media for stirring up controversy over an advertisement in which a black man “washed” by its product was transformed into a fairer-skinned Asian man.
Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics said it strongly condemned racial discrimination but blamed foreign media for amplifying controversy over the advertisement, which first appeared on Chinese social media in March but was pulled after it drew protests this week following media reports.
“We express regret that the ad should have caused a controversy,” the statement issued late on Saturday read. “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,” the company said.
“We sincerely hope the public and the media will not over-read it.”
The ad for Qiaobi laundry detergent drops shows a black man entering a room and attempting to flirt with an Asian woman.
He is carrying a pail of paint, wears dirty clothes and has a soiled face. She feeds him a detergent drop and stuffs his body into a top-loading washer. When the cycle completes, a fair-skinned Asian man in a clean white T-shirt emerges to the delight of the woman.
When speaking to the Chinese nationalist newspaper The Global Times, a Mr Wang of Leishang said the critics were “too sensitive”, and the issue of racial discrimination never came up during the production of the video.