Mercedes Removes Video Ad in China After Facing Backlash over Model's Eye Makeup
Mercedes-Benz removed a video advertisement from a Chinese social media website, state media said, after the clip got swept up in a charged national debate over depictions of Asian-looking features by foreign companies.
Mercedes-Benz has removed a video ad from its Chinese social media website Weibo after it triggered a national debate over the depiction of Asian-looking features by foreign companies.
The video was posted on Mercedes-Benz’s official Weibo account on Saturday and later removed due to public backlash, the Communist Party’s Global Times newspaper said. “The makeup of the female model looked like slanted eyes and once again aroused a heated discussion from netizens with many blaming that the makeup reflects Western stereotypes about Asian people,” the paper said Tuesday.
This episode makes the automobile giant the latest target of consumer nationalism in China. In recent news, Chinese social media platforms erupted over allegations that Walmart Inc. had stopped selling items from Xinjiang at its Sam’s Club grocery stores in the Asian nation. Christian Dior SE stopped using a photo of a model in November that state media said was “smearing Asian women.”
Chinese internet users have recently been debating the way that models' eyes are shown in advertising. The Chinese company Three Squirrels Inc. recently apologized for ads featuring model Cai Niang Niang wearing makeup that accentuated the slant of her eyes, the South China Morning Post reported.
Amid the backlash, the model hit back on the Twitter-like Weibo service, saying: "With small eyes, am I not Chinese? I totally agree with patriotism. However, creating big problems out of normal matters has become a morbid obsession."
