.jpg?rect=0%2C0%2C2000%2C1125&auto=format%2Ccompress&fmt=webp&width=720)
What starts out as a normal ad – with viewers wondering what the connection between the hot girl, the dude and the product is – takes an unpleasant and absurd turn that left us wondering what the creative team was thinking when this was conceptualised.
This Chinese ad is for a detergent called Qiaobi. Let us break it up, shall we?
The ad begins normally, a girl (obviously good looking) drops a few clothes in the washing machine.
Enter dude, with the typical wolf whistle.
Look at his expression when the girl signals him towards her! (Expectations, expectations!)
..okay, she feeds him something?
And then, she stuffs him in the washing machine! Wait, what?!
Out comes an Asian man from the machine.
Wah, kya detergent powder hai!
Basically, the girl puts a dark skinned-man into the washing machine, and with the power of the detergent, out comes a ‘clean’, ‘white’ Asian man.
Were they trying to compare dirty and clean clothes with the colour of someone’s skin?
This is worse than just putting a man in to the wash. It implies that his skin colour needed cleansing. More than anything, what is surprising is the blatant racism this ad contains. No, it is not underlined or hidden, it is out there, raw and naked for everyone to see.
Why Qiaobi, why?
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)