Chinese Detergent Ad is the Most Racist TV Commercial

Any marketing or brand executive would surely be happy to see their commercial go viral. This particular Chinese ad however, has become popular for all the wrong reasons.

China’s Qiaobi laundry detergent advert has got to be the most racist TV commercial ever made to date. The less than a minute TV ad features an Asian woman doing her laundry when suddenly a black man with paint on his face and clothes appears at the door.

The man and woman flirt with each other but when the man starts to move in for a kiss, the woman stuffs a detergent pack into his mouth and forces the guy into the washing machine.

The man and woman initially flirt, but the man gets blatantly rejected.

She waits for the wash cycle to finish.

And out comes a freshly-laundered, white-skinned Asian man.

Watch the TV ad:

Currently, the commercial is being shown on TV and in movie theaters. Shanghaiist website reports, “Thanks to traditional beauty standards valuing white skin, many Chinese people have a well-established phobia of dark skin which unfortunately also breeds racist attitudes towards people of African descent, who are viewed by some as ‘dirty’ simply because of their skin tone.”

The said commercial is actually a copy of an earlier Italian TV ad that features a white man who is pushed into the washer and comes out black. Even the background music is the same. Only the brand of the detergent is different.

A previously aired TV ad with the same theme:

Chinese social networking site Weibo has reported that the said Qiaobi ad was already uploaded to social media early this year.

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