A screengrab of the Qiaobi commercial that went viral last week. (Photo : Weibo)
An advertisement for a Chinese washing machine detergent has become viral not only in China but also on western media for being racist. However, it turns out the storyboard is not even original, but a copy of an Italian commercial.
In the 43-second TV commercial for soap brand Qiaobi, a young Chinese woman is shown loading her dirty clothes in a washing machine. Then a handsome black man with white paint on his face appears on her door, giving her a wolf whistle.
She beckons him to approach her and just when they appear to kiss, she grabs him and forcibly dumps the guy inside the washing machine. The man then comes out a clean Chinese man which makes the woman happy as seen from her smile, reported What’s on Weibo.
Shanghaiist and Vox were the initial media to comment on the advertisement which was actually uploaded to Chinese video platform iQiyi in early 2016 but got no comments. However, Vox described the commercial as “jaw-dropping racist” which many Facebook users agree with.
In YouTube, where the commercial was posted on Thursday, it was viewed already more than 10,000 times and since then has elicited more than 70 comments and triggered debates.
Trek Ryder said it “expresses an inferiority complex towards blacks, and black men in particular.” However, John A. pointed out that “over the years, Asian just took in all the penis size jokes from blacks and no one said a word.”
For Ninoslaw Ciszewski, “the black guy was a better match for her.” Mr. Bond wrote, “The chinks must have not gotten Shlomo Shekelstein’s memo that racism is no longer accepted in this beautiful new world of tolerance.”
Joe King said it is either a stupid or genius PR, while Martinfbates wrote, “throwing a black man in a washing machine with dirty clothes also implies that being black is impure.”
And the debate goes on, but Shanghaiist noted that the Qiaobi commercial is not only a copy, but a blatant ripoff of a series of Italian laundry detergent aired about nine years ago. The music and sound effects are even the same, with similar racist overtones, but argued “coloured is better.”
However, in the Coloreria Italiana ads, it is the white male and female who are dumped inside the washing machine and out comes a handsome black guy.
