These Are The Most Tone-Deaf And Insensitive Ads Of All Time

Ad For Chinese Laundry Detergent Contained Racist Undertones

Photo credit: John Leyba/The Denver Post via Getty Images

A 2016 ad for Qiaobi detergent in China offended an international audience. It featured a Chinese woman doing laundry when a black painter tries to kiss her. She reacts by shoving a detergent pod into his mouth and pushing him into the washing machine. At the end of the cycle after he’s “clean,” he turns into a pale Chinese man.

Chinese audiences weren’t too perturbed by the ad, but online viewers from other countries were shocked by its racist undertones. The backlash forced Qiaobi to pull the ad, but they were not very remorseful, saying the scandal was due to “the over-amplification by the media.”